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WILLIAM SMITH
JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK
WILLIAM SMITH-THE HISTORIAN
CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW YORK AND OF CANADA
BY MATURIN L. DELAFIELD
Reprinted from "The Magazine of American History," of April and June, 1881
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WILLIAM SMITH
JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PROVI^JCE OF NEW YORK
WILLIAM SMITH-THE HISTORIAN
CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW YORK AND OF CANADA
BY MATURIN L. DELAFIELD
Reprinted from "The Magazine of American History," of April and June, 1881
6^
WILLIAM SMITH
JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK
WILLIAM SMITH
JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK
William Smith, ancestor of the New York colonial family of Smithy
made illustrious in the persons of Judge and Chief Justice Smith, served
in the army of the Commonwealth. At the close of the great civil war
he removed from his birth-place and residence in the Isle of Ely, Cam-
bridgeshire, England, and settled at Newport Pagnell, Buckingham-
shire, where he died about 1682. His wife, Elizabeth (Hartley), whom
he married 4th September, 1661, lived until 1710, and was buried in the
same grave with her husband in the aisle, on the south side of the font,
of the parish church, Newport Pagnell.
James Hartley, the father of Elizabeth, was a younger son of William
Hartley of Strangwicke Hall, the chief of one of the most ancient fam-
ilies of Lancashire. He (James Hartley) died 27th June, 1666, aged 63,
at the same time with his wife, both victims of the plague which visited
Newport Pagnell that summer. They were buried together in the
parish church, and in the same aisle in which their daughter and son-in-
law were afterwards laid to rest. Beneath the surrounding stones lie
the bodies of many of the Hartley family. Among the memorial tab-
lets was one " To the memory of James Hartley, who departed this life
27 June, 1666. Aged 63.
No epitaph can make
The just man famed
The good are praised
When they are only named."
At the west end of the Hartley aisle, chained to a desk, were three vol-
umes, the Lives of the Martyrs, with a Latin inscription, signifying that
these books were the gift of William Hartley in 161 2.
William and Elizabeth Smith had issue five sons and one daughter:
William, James, John, Samuel, Thomas, the father of the subject of
the present sketch, and Christiana, who died young (see notes to this
article, I to V).
Judge William Smith, the subject of the present sketch, was the
eldest son of Thomas and Susanna (Odell) Smith. He was born at New-
port Pagnell, England, on the 8th October, 1697, old style, and died in
the city of New York 22d November, 1769. He studied the classics
WILLIAM SMITH 265
under the Rev. Mr. Stannard, minister at Simpson, and Mr. Wood-
ward of Newport, and the sciences under Mr. Litten of the latter
place. With his father's family he arrived in New York 17th August,
171 5, and shortly afterwards entered Yale College, where he was
graduated in 17 19, and from which college he received the degree of
A. M. I2th September, 1722. At this period his inclinations, in which
he was encouraged by his father, would have led him to devote himself
to the church, but whatever profession was selected, he was bent upon
pursuing his studies. The city of New York offered few facilities to a
student, and returning to New Haven, Mr. Smith accepted the position
of tutor or professor — he is mentioned by both names, although on the
college catalogue entered simply as tutor — and acted as such from 1722
to 1724. Although but twenty-seven years of age, such was his reputa-
tion as a classical and theological student, so pure was his life, that he
was offered the presidency of the college, made vacant by the retire-
ment of the Rev. Dr. Cutler. The tempting offer was declined. Of
the dead languages, Greek and Hebrew were his favorites, in both
of which he was a ripe scholar ; but the law presenting attractions which
were irresistible, every spare moment was devoted to its study.
Happily he found in New Haven wise counselors, and in his father an
indulgent parent, who imported for him books of study and of refer-
ence, which were not to be had in the colonies. He was admitted to
the bar 20th May, 1724, and on the 20th July following- began to prac-
tice as a lawyer in the city of New York. He rose rapidly to eminence.
Few cases of importance came before the courts in which William
Smith was not retained, generally on the Whig side. His Hfe, which
remains yet to be written, is interwoven with the political and legal his-
tory of the times. Here but an outline can be drawn, with brief allu-
sions to those prominent events which influenced his political career ;
the first of which raised him while still a young man to the highest
pinnacle of popular esteem.
In August, 1735, James Alexander (who is said to have come to
America in the same vessel with Mr. Smith) and Mr. Smith, having been
retained by Van Dam in his defense against Governor Cosby, took
exception to the composition of the Supreme Court, arguing that
Messrs. De Lancey and Philipse were not legally entitled to seats, the
law not having been properly complied with in their appointment.
The plea gave great offense, and was never forgiven by the Court
party. In April, 1735, the same gentlemen represented John Peter
Zenger, editor of the popular New York Weekly Journal; Mr. De
266 WILLIAM SMITH
Lancey having in the meantime been promoted as Chief Justice in the
room of the distinguished Justice Morris, and Mr. Philipse advanced to
the second place. Again exception was taken to the composition of the
court. The Judges refused to allow or hear the exceptions argued, the
Chief Justice in great heat exclaiming, " You have brought it to that
point that either we must go from the bench or you from the bar." The
counsel refused to withdraw their plea, and boldly stood on their rights ;
thereupon, i6th April, 1735, an order was issued striking the names of
James Alexander and William Smith from the list of attorneys.
Mr. Van Dam and Zenger, the printer, had in the opinion of the
great mass of the population of the province been unjustly and harshly
dealt with ; the treatment of the two popular lawyers added fuel
to the existing excitement. Both were gentlemen of the highest social
position, of large means, of great private and public influence, and were
supported by most of the influential families of the province. The
party in power soon found that they had gone too far; in gratifying
personal revenge and jealousy they had weakened themselves and
strengthened the opposition. Justly did Gouverneur Morris declare
that "the trial of Zenger in 1735 was the germ of American Freedom."
There was, moreover, a disturbing doubt whether the angry Justices
had not rendered themselves liable to personal damages. Neither
Smith nor Alexander condescended to withdraw from the position
taken. Worst of all, the Judges were taunted with ignorance of the
law, and mortified by the ridicule of the opposition — ridicule that still
survives in the pages of Smith's History of the Province of New York.
In 1737 advances were made to the two lawyers, which, being frankly
met, the order depriving them was cancelled upon the condition that
they should forego any right of action for civil damages. To assist his
party friends and to strengthen the popular cause, William Smith
accepted, 29th September, 1736, the office of recorder under Mr. Van
Dam. With this sole exception, until 1751, he kept aloof from official
employment, confining himself strictly to his profession and his duties
as a citizen.
Mr. Smith was appointed, 1748, in Governor Belcher's charter one
of the incorporators of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and is
believed to have been also a trustee under the charter given b)" John
Hamilton, President of the Council, in 1746. The historian of the col-
lege. President Maclean, inclines to the belief that William Smith pre-
pared the first charter, and also the rough draft of the second one. He
says of him that "to the end of his life he was the earnest friend of the
WILLIAM SMITH 267
college, and one of the most honored and influential members ol the
board." Many of his immediate descendants, sons and grandchildren,
were graduated at Princeton.
The indifference of the people of New York to their lack of facilities
for education was, as it had formerly been to his father, a matter of sur-
prise and solicitude to Mr. Smith. With the exception of those in holy
orders, there are found in New York, during a period of many years,
but two college graduates, natives of the province, Lieutenant-Governor
De Lancey of Cambridge, England, and Judge Smith of Yale. In the
city of New York the classical schoolmaster was left to starve. Judge
Smith and his brothers had been forced to seek competent teachers in
neighboring provinces ; his sons were sent to Yale, to Princeton and to
Europe. To their regret, other gentlemen of English origin, whose
numbers were now rapidly increasing, were compelled to pursue the
same course. As the worthy Dutch burghers, notwithstanding their
wealth, would not support a pedagogue by their voluntary contri-
butions, William Smith, William Alexander and some of the Morris
family in 1732 petitioned the Assembly to establish a free school for
teaching Latin, Greek and mathematics. The petition having been
favorably received, the school was established the same year, under the
care of Alexander Malcolm. A commencement had been made, but
much more must be done, and that promptly ; something more than a
grammar school was a necessity. As might be expected, William Smith
is found foremost among the founders of King's College. With a liber-
ality beyond the age, his wish was that the institution should be free
from sectarian bias; in this expectation funds were easily collected by
lotteries, and a yearly grant was promised by the Legislature. In
November, 175 1, trustees were appointed, composed, ex-ofificio, of
Civil Magistrates, and James and William Livingston and Benjamin
Nicoll. Presently it became apparent that the Court party purposed
to divert the control of the college to the Episcopalians. The people
took alarm, the press clamored in vain. Although the popular party
represented nine-tenths of the population, they were overruled. Mr.
De Lancey gained his point, but lost his popularity. There was
no redress, except for the Assembly to withdraw a moiety of the
funds collected, but this to the College was of little moment. Party
spirit had been aroused. Trinity Church made a magnificent gift
of real estate; wealthy Episcopalians, at home and abroad, furnished
ready money. What at this time appears to be of little or no moment
was at that period an absorbing pohtical question. Well might the
268 WILLIAM SMITH
Presbyterians dread the power of the Church of England, and
resist what in their estimation became an entering wedge against
their dearly won privileges. Their hard experience in England and
Scotland was fresh in men's minds. The immense number of Scottish
emigrants from the north of Ireland, driven out by persecution, mor-
ally and physically a splendid race, could not forget their sufferings;
most of all, could not forget the prelatist taunt that their offspring were
bastards. As the Romanists denied the validity of Episcopal orders in
the Church of England, so, in turn, the Irish Church establishment
proclaimed that no apostolic power existed in a Presbyterian ministry
to legally bind in wedlock. Unhappily they possessed the temporal
authority to enforce their doctrine, and at times the home government
lent their sanction to the monstrous claim. In Ireland^ for many years,
in the eye of the law the Romanist and Presbyterian stood on the same
ground ; neither were acknowledged, both were permitted to exist.
The dominant Church, however, conceded to a foreign priesthood the
miraculous gift to bind, if not to loose, but denied that the power could
exist in a Presbyterian ministry. The pauper, peasant, perhaps disso-
lute priest, in virtue of his ofihce possessed what the learned, pious,
perhaps nobly born Presbyterian divine could never attain to. The
lowest of the one was more exalted by the Anglo-Irish Church than
the highest of the other. In Great Britain, Presbyterian honor had
asserted itself with the sword ; their rights were secured by Parliament.
In Ireland their congregations were at the mercy of an intolerant clergy.
Priestly folly, the curse of the lovely isle, forced her hardy population
to seek refuge in America. The Presbyterian refugees certainly pre-
cipitated, perhaps turned the tide of war which gave freedom to a
continent.
In former days many of the great nobles, with some few of the
clergy — Knox, Bishop of Rappo ; Dr. Usher, Primate of Armagh, who
is styled in Wadrow's Biographies " not only ane learned, but ane
godly man, although ane bishop," with some others, had protected the
Presbyterians against the hostility of the Church. Old friends removed
by death were not replaced by new ones, or the sympathy which
is accompanied by active aid was withheld, because of the Jacobite
principles attributed to the Scotch and Irish Presbyterians. The
refuge America extended was more and more availed of. Each vessel
that arrived at New York added strength to the national party, and
rendered the Court clique more impotent of harm ; the brief " Golden
Age" of the Tories was passing away. Presently, as the High
WILLIAM SMITH
269
Church Tories, with increasing wealth, increased their pretensions,
prominent men in neighboring Connecticut were heard to say in
public, that "another Oliver might arise," and soon after, as Dr. Peters
records, the fame of Governor Tryon was increased, because he was
reported to have recommended to the British Ministry the Presbyterian
Livingstons and Smiths, with the Dutch Schuylers, as the best subjects
in New York. These were men who could neither be bought, fiat-
tered nor terrified. As Englishmen, they would have their rights, and
in the end were justified and honored both at home and in England;
and this too, whether in the approaching^struggle they adhered to the
mother country or to the colonies. ^ '^^'^^
In 1754 Messrs. Smith, Philip Livingston, William Alexander (Lord
Stirling), Robert R. Livingston -(the— ChanceUor), William Livingston
(Governor of New Jersey), John Morin Scott and others, assembled at
the residence of one of their number, believed to have been that of
William Smith, arranged a plan for a public library, and collected for
the purpose i^6oo, with which to make a beginning. Under Governor
Tryon a charter was obtained. The library then founded is now repre-
sented by the New York Society Library.
In 1 75 1 William Smith was appointed by Clinton, Governor of the
province, without solicitation on his part and in most flattering terms.
Attorney General and Advocate General, and was sworn in 31st
August, 1752. The same year he was recommended to the seat in the
Council made vacant by the death of Sir Peter Warren. The Gover-
nor's letter, addressed to the Lords of Trade, and dated 24th October,
1752, adds the significant testimony, that Mr. Smith was "the only
lawyer who would and did consent to prosecute Mr. Oliver De Lancey,
brother of the Chief Justice." That the " Golden Age " was then at its
prime is shown by the fact that the recommendation of Governor
Clinton to remove Chief Justice De Lancey from his ofifice was not
complied with by the home government. Pursuant to a mandamus of
the King, William Smith was sworn in on the 30th day of April, 1753.
Singularly enough, among his unsuccessful competitors for the office
is found this same Mr. Oliver De Lancey. Mr. Smith remained a
member of the Council until shortly before his death, when he was
succeeded by his eldest son.
In 1754 Mr. Smith was appointed one of the four representatives
from the Province of New York to the General Congress which met at
Albany, and was the representative of the province to propose and
receive plans for the Union of the colonies under one Government.
270 WILLIAM SMITH ^
A few years later, 1760. he was offered by Lieutenant-Governor Golden,
and declined, the office of Chief Justice, made vacant by the death of
Mr. De Lancey. The offer was the more complimentary as it was made
over the heads of three existing justices, Messrs. Chambers, Hors-
maiiden and Jones.
In 1763 Mr. Smith accepted the appointment of Judge of the
Supreme Court of the Province, and retained the office until his
death.
Judge Smith was all his life a hard student. His learning and accom-
plishments were as thorough as they were varied. He was an excel-
lent linguist, a theologian, a good mathematician and possessed some
scientific knowledge. As a lawyer he stood among the highest in the
provinces, and both as lawyer and judge was conscientious and pains-
taking. In every sense an Englishman, he possessed in an eminent
degree that best of English qualities, an inbred determination to resist
oppression and tyranny, whether exerted against himself or against his
neighbor. Too late Great Britain acknowledged that men like him
were, in the colonies, equally as at home her most desirable subjects.
His person was commanding, his countenance full of intelligence; he
possessed a strong constitution and uninterrupted good health. With
unusual natural and acquired advantages, he was also endowed with a
rare fluency of speech, a lively imagination, a most retentive memory
and real eloquence. An obituary notice in the New York Gazette of
27th November, 1769, admits him to have been the most eloquent
speaker in the province ; in all of the provinces would have been equally
correct. Whatever work Judge Smith undertook it became to him a
pleasure, as well as a duty, to perform it thoroughly. But one portrait
of the Judge is known to the writer to be in existence ; this, painted
by WoUaston in 1751, is preserved among his descendants in Quebec,
Canada. From it the etching which accompanies this sketch has been
taken.
Judge William Smith was twice married ; first by the Rev. Mr.
David de Bonrepos, minister of the French congregation on Staten
Island, the service being performed in the French language, on the iith
of Mav, 1727, to Mary, daughter of Rene and Blanche (Du Bois) Het
(see N. Y. G. and B, Record, 1880, p. 144, and Hist. Mag., 1868, p. 266,
for some particulars of the Het family), by whom he had fifteen chil-
dren. Mrs. Smith was born in the city of New York, 24th May, 1710,
died 22d August, 1754, and was buried in the aisle of the Old South
Church. Judge Smith married secondly on the 12th May, 1761, Mrs.
WILLIAM SMITH ^ 271
Elizabeth Williams, widow of Colonel Elisha i Williamo of g.n glnprl ^ and
daughter of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Scott of Nithern, Herefordshire,
England, and later of Norwich, where he died about 1747. Mrs. Eliza-
beth Smith was born 17th October, 1708, and came to America with her
husband, Colonel Williams, in 175 1. The Historical Magazine, 1868, p.
267, states that, after the death of Judge Smith, his widow "returned
to Wethersfield, and died there in the sixty-eighth year of her age."
She had no issue by Judge Smith.
The children of Judge and Mary Smith were all well educated.
They were proficient in French and Dutch, and possessed for the period
and city in which they lived an unusual knowledge of English litera-
ture. The sons were familiar with the Greek and Latin classics ; two,
if not more of them, were good Hebrew scholars. They were edu-
cated in the Presbyterian faith, and were prominent members of that
church. All adhered to the Republican party, and held to their father's
conviction that as Englishmen, although born in the provinces, they
were entitled to all and every one of the privileges and immunities
enjoyed by their cousins at home. They were among and well repre-
sented the descendants of those who had curbed the tyranny of Charles
the First.
As a family they were, by birth and training, tolerant of the
religious convictions of others, and for this very reason were the more
prone to take alarm at the very shadow of Tory and priestly practices
as they spread over the new England and were fostered by some of the
Governors. In opposition to the Court party of the several local govern-
ments, they warmly supported their father's views, to strengthen the
country by the union of the colonies under one general government.
Faithful to the British Constitution, they were aware of its faults, and
believed that upon its model one more just and sound might be
devised for the new English country. In this they anticipated some of
the reforms which the people of England in after years added to their
liberties.
MATURIN L. DELAFIELD
I. William Smith, known as " Port Royal Smith," and also as the " Uncle,"
to distinguish him from his nephew, Judge William Smith. Of his life and issue
an account is given in the N. Y. G. and B. Record, Vol. X., p. 32. He died in
New York City, 15th October, 1736, of apoplexy, cet. 74, leaving a grandson and
heir William Peartree Smith.
2-2 WILLIAM SMITH
II. James remained and died in England ; residing at Passenham, near
Sioney Stratford, Buckinghamshire. He married and left sons and daughters.
III. John emigrated to New York, where he married and lived many years.
About the year 17 14, he returned to England and died there, leaving a family in
New York. Nothing is ascertained with certainty in regard to his issue. William
Smith, a " cousin" of the judge and of the Rev. John Smith, whose death is re-
corded as having occurred 7th February, 1728, aged 30 years, may have been a
son of his.
IV. Samuel settled in Jamaica, West Indies, probably moving there at the
same time with his eldest brother, " Port Royal " Smith. He married in the Island,
and died there soon afterwards, cpt. twenty-seven years.
s V. Thomas, the youngest son, was born at Newport Pagnell, i8th Septem-
/ ber, 1675. He survived all of his brothers and his sister, and died in New York
14th November, 1745, and was buried at the plantation of his son Thomas, in
Smith's Clove, Orange County, New York. Thomas married in England, 13th
May, 1696, Susanna, second daughter of Thomas and Christiana Odell, of North-
field Meadows, Buckinghamshire, in which parish Mr. Odell owned a large estate,
besides other landed property elsewhere. Thomas Odell died 13th May, 1698,
aged 47 years ; his wife, Christiana, died 7th July of the same year. Besides
Susanna, married to Thomas Smith, they had a daughter Mary, who died unmar-
ried, and two sons — John, who died in infancy at Newport Pagnell, and Thomas,
who when of age inherited the Odell estates. This gentleman, "falling into grand
company, and being a very agreeable person of wit and humor, was much solicited
by the nobility and gentry, which took off his attention from his own affairs. He
soon spent his estate and afterwards obtained a small office under the Duke of
Grafton, the Lord Chamberlain, of ;!^2oo a year. He married the daughter of Sir
Richard Everitt, and died, as I have heard, in 1749, leaving a daughtei: Penelope.
Thomas Odell, the father, was buried under his seat in the church at Simpson ;
Christiana, his wife, John their son, Mary their eldest daughter, and Odell Smith,
the youngest son of Thomas Smith and Susanna, his wife, lie buried in the church
yard, before the South Porch of the same church and thereabouts, and in the
church lie the dust of a train of ancestors, who have died in succession through
many years." (From a note prepared by Chief Justice Wm. Smith, dated 9th De-
cember, 1796.)
Christiana, the wife of Thomas Odell, was a daughter of John Goodman, of
( Simpson, four miles from Newport Pagnell. Mr. Goodman possessed an immense
i estate in Buckinghamshire, transmitted, as was claimed, from the time of William
the Conqueror, from father to son, the heirs with rare exceptions bearing alter-
nately the names of Richard and John.
Thomas Smith also emigrated from England, but at a much more advanced
age than his brothers. He sailed from London on the 24th May, 17 15, with his
wife and three sons, arriving in New York on the 17th of August following, bring-
WILLIAM SMITH
273
ing with him if not wealth, at least a considerable fortune ; a fortune sufficient to
place him immediately among the substantial citizens of New ^'ork. His new
home offered many attractions ; still two things, in his opinion of vital importance,
were wanting : schools or teachers to educate his sons, and the Communion of the
Presbyterian faith. The first want Mrs. Smith and himself did in part replace,
with the occasional aid, as is believed, of a tutor from New England ; the second
he resolved should not be of long continuance. Almost immediately upon his ar-
rival, Mr. Smith employed himself in gathering together the members of his church,
many of whom had previously, as they continued to do when absent from New
York, worshipped with the Dutch congregation. He has the honor of being one I
of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church in New York As early as (
October, 17 16, a congregation, presided over by a resident minister, was assembled
in the City Hall, and after 17 19 in their own building in Wall street, a church built
upon ground purchased and held in the names of Dr. John Nicoll, Patrick
M'Knight, Gilbert Livingston and Thomas Smith. In 1722 a part of the congre-
gation, under the leadership of Thomas Smith, withdrew for a short period from
the Wall Street congregation, and called the excellent Jonathan Edwards as their
pastor. During the eight months of his ministry, his home was at the house of ,
Thomas Smith ; of his intimacy with the family, some account is given in )
Edwards' own words, in the sketch of the life of the Rev. John Smith, which
appears in the appendix to this article.
As old age approached Mr. and Mrs. Smith appear to have longed to return
to the mother country and the bright fields of old England. With this in view, and
intending to purchase an estate near Guilford, Mrs. Smith sailed in the Rebecca,
Captain Banks, 7th December, 1728, and landed in England on the 15th of Janu-
ary following. At London she was taken ill and died there on the 9th of March,
1729, in the fifty-second year of her age. She was buried in the Church of St.
Botolph, Aldersgate.
Thomas and Susanna Smith had issue four sons and several daughters, i,
William (the judge) ; 2, Thomas ; 3, John ; 4, Odell ; Elizabeth and Martha, of
whom some account appears in the appendix.
Note— In the possession of the Penn. Hist. Society there is a bound volume
of the New York Weekly Post, 1744 to 1746, in which is found the book plate of
William Peartree Smith. The arms and crest are the same as those upon the seal
and book plate of Chief Justice Smith, the latter of which is here reproduced, but
it has for motto Deus Nobis Haec Otia Fecit ; a worthy device for an expatriated
family which had served in the army of the Parliament. Beneath is the name,
William P. Smith, A. M. This Mr. Smith was the only grandson and surviving
issue of William (Port Royal) Smith, and inherited the estate of his grandfather.
His father, also William, who died probably 7th February, 1728 (?) was first cousin
to the Colonial Judge William Smith. According to the excellent genealogy of
274
WILLIAM SMITH
this branch of the family by T. H. Montgomery, Esq., in the N. Y. Genea-
logical and Biographical Record, 1879, page 32, William P. Smith was bom
in 1723, and died 20th November, 1801, and on the same authority, this
the eldest branch of the American Smiths appears to be now extinct in the
male line.
ARMS OF SMITH
APPENDIX
275
APPENDIX
IMMEDIATE FAMILY OF JUDGE
WILLIAM SMITH
Thomas Smith, the second son of Thomas
and Susanna Smith, was a farmer. But little
authentic information hns been obtained of him.
He is said to have been a man of education, as
indeed could hardly have been otherwise, con-
sidering the surroundings of his youth ; and is
believed to have entered Yale College, but his
name does not appear in the catalogue of gradu-
ates. He owned property in or near New York
City, and a large tract of land, which, or a part
of which, appears to have originally belonged to
his father, in what was then, from this family,
known as Smith's Clove, the present town of
Monroe, Orange County. It is recorded in the
handwriting of his brother, the judge, under
date of 25th January, 1725, that on that day
Thomas announced his engagement to Miss
Hannah Hooker, and another note states that
Thomas' daughter Sadie, died 14th September,
1729, aged 25 months. Miss Hooker, the in-
tended bride of Thomas, is called cousin by the
jitdge, and may have been a sister of Mehetabel
Hooker, who had married the Rev. John Smith,
and possibly a grandchild of the John Smith,
who in 1714 returned to England, leaving his
family in New York. During the Revolution
descendants of Thomas Smith are mentioned as
living in Smith's Clove.
John Smith (Rev'd), the third son of Thomas
and Susanna Smith, born 5th May, 1702, at New-
port Pagnell ; died at White Plains, Westchester
County, 26th February, 1771. He was graduated
at Yale College 1727, where in addition to his
other duties, he occupied himself with the study
of divinity and of the healing art, then or at a later
period receiving the degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine. Among the papers of his brother, the judge,
is found the statement, that while still an under-
graduate, brother John married at Guilford,
Conn., 6th May, 1724 ; we are left in doubt as
to the name of the lady ; but of his family, we
find that a son was born to him 22d March, 1725,
that his daughter Molly, aged 17 months, died
3d September, 1729, and that a son John died
24th September of the same year, at Guilford.
At this place he appears to have chiefly resicLed,
for several years practicing there as a physician,
but also at times in New York occupied with his
profession. From this period his life and labors
are traced by the Rev. Dr. Charles W. Haird, in
his admirable History of Rye, from which the
following is condensed. On the I3lh December.
1742, Dr. Smith was ordained by a council of
the Eastern Consociation of Fairfield County,
which met at Rye, as minister of that place ;
here he removed his family and purchased a
house, to the no small chagrin and displeasure of
the Church of England missionary, who plain-
tively records the thoroughness with which the
new minister entered upon his labors and in-
creased his following. At a later period the
churches at White Plains and also at Sing Sing
were put under his pastoral care ; he removed to
the former village and continued, as he had
done at Rye, to practice, when occasion required,
as a physician to the suffering body as well as to
the troubled soul. The authority already quoted
gives Dr. Smith high rank as an " able, earnest
and influential minister of the Gospel," as ''a
man of eminent piety, and of a very high order
of intellectual capacity." His father, Thomas
Smith, as previously stated, had been one of the
founders of the Wall Street or First Presbyterian
Church in New York City, and was among those
who in the trouble of 1722 withdrew from the
congregation and called Jonathan Edwards to
preside over the flock. The famous preacher
made his home in the house and with the family
of Thomas Smith. " Edwards was then barely
nineteen years of age, and John Smith but a
little over twenty, and between those two young
men there sprang up a friendship the most inti-
mate and ardent ; which we have reason to be-
lieve lasted for years and perhaps through life.
They used often, Mr. Edwards tells us, to walk
together on the banks of the Hudson, to con-
verse on the things of God, ' and our conversa-
tion used to turn on the advancement of Christ's
kingdom in the world and the glorious things
that God would accomplish for his church in the
latter days.' He speaks of his separation from
his endeared friend and companion as one of the
most bitter trials of his life " (History of Rye by
Rev. Dr. Baird, p. 3311- After nearly thirty
I
276
APPENDIX
years of lahor in the ministry Dr. Smith fell
asleep among his people at White Plains, ami
was buried in the grave-yard of his church.
During the recent enlargement of the church,
the rear of the building was extended over the
grave and the upright slab removed further
back ; the inscription kindly copied by the
present incumbent, the Rev. Mr. Heermance, is
as follows ;
Here Lies the Remains of the Revd
John Smith the First ordained Minister
Of the Presbyterian Persuasion in Rye
& the White Plains. Who was born in
England May 5 : 1702 : Wore out with
Various Labors & Fell asleep In Jesus
Deceased Feby. 26, 1771 : Aged 68 Years : 9 Months &
22 days.
By Faith He Lived In Faith He Died & Faith
Forsees a Rising Day when Jesus Comes While
Hope Assumes & Boasts His Joy .Among the
Tombs O Death O Grave Where Is Thy Victory
Thanks be to God which Giveth us the
Victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ
Near by are tombstones to the memory of his
wife and of two daughters.
The History of Rye so freely used in prepar-
ing the above sketch gives the marriage of the
Rev. John Smith as obtained from papers in the
possession of his descendants. He married 6th
May, 1724 (the same date as given in Judge
Smith's memorandum) Mehetabel, daughter of
James and Mary Hooker, of Guilford — her
father being " a son of the Rev. Samuel Hooker
and grandson of the famous Thomas Hooker."
They had issue four sons and eight daughters,
whose descendants are said to be numerous.
Mrs. Smith died as appears from her tombstone
Sept. 5, 1775, aged 71 years, 4 months and 5
days. One of the daughters, Susanna, married
the Rev. Mr. Benjamin Tallmadge, of Brook-
. haven, L. I., and was the mother of Colonel
I Benjamin Tallmadge.
Odell .Smith died young and was buried at
Sini pson as already stated.
"^"The daughters "oT Thomas Smith and Susanna
Smith all remained and died in England.
Elizabeth, the third daughter, married
Thomas Herbert, of Acton, Buckinghamshire,
and had Thomas and others.
Marth.v, the fourth daughter, married Ed-
mund Roberts, of Elrington, near Leighton
Buzzard, Bucks and had Edmund, Thomas,
John and perhaps others.
DESCENDANTS OF JUDGE WILLIAM
AND MARY SMITH
William Smith, Chief Justice of New York
and of Canada (known as the Historian), bom
1 8th June, 1728. His life will make the subject
of a separate paper.
Susanna Smith, bom 24th December, 1729;
died 20th March, 1791 ; married 14th Septem-
ber, 1747, Robert James Livingston, merchant
of New York (bom 15th February, 1725 ; died
25th January, 1771), the eldest son of James and
Maria (Kierstedt) Livingston, the feudal head or
chief in descent of that family in America ; and
had ten children. As doubly first cousins to the
children of Chief Justice Smith, a short account
of their lives is given.
Mary Livingston, born 7th June, 1748, in New York
City ; died in London 6th January, 1830. She married,
first, license dated 29th October, 1765, Captain Gabriel
Maturin, who died in Boston, about 1774-6. Captain
Maturin entered the British service 12th April, 1756, as a
Lieutenant in the 35th Regiment, was promoted Captain
1764, and in 1768 transferred to the 31st Foot. He was
appointed military and private Secretary to Sir Guy
Carleton, Governor of Canada. Sir Guy returning to
England, Captain Maturin, then in New York, was sum-
moned to Canada and ordered to replace his chief in im-
portant military duties. His wife and a younger sister,
Susanna, afterwards Mrs. Armstrong, accompanied him
in his northern journey. Mrs. Maturin married, secondly.
Dr. Jonathan Mallet, an Englishman, who had settled in
New York, sometime prior to the revolution. His first
wife, Miss Catherine Kennedy, whom he had married
about June, 1765, license dated 13th of that month, died
in New York 3d September, 1777 (N. Y. Gazette, 8th
September, 1777), leaving three children.
Dr. Mallet's residence, which he had built adjoining
the Kennedy house in Broadway, is reported as having
been occupied by the British troops at the commencement
of the war. (Note i.) He appears to have been the
fashionable and one of the most successful of the
physicians of the period, and is described as an educated
and very agreeable man. During the war, 1776, to 1782,
he was Surgeon, for part of the time Chief Surgeon, and
Purveyor to the hospitals for his Majesty's forces in
America. In 1783 his name appears in the army lists as
Chief Purveyor only, and the following year is omitted.
A letter from Mrs. Mallet, dated ist July, 1784, now be-
fore the writer, tells of her arrival two days before, at
London, with her husband and servants. After a passage
of six weeks from New York, the Mallets, Mrs. Jauncey
and another lady landed at Dover, where they met Lieut
Mallet, a brother of the Doctor, who had also served in
APPENDIX
'■77
America. At London, the Americans flocked to see
them. Mention is made of Chief Justice Smith, of
Thomas and Doctor James Smith, the latter in ill health,
of Mrs. Plinderleith and her children ; of Mrs. Kennedy,
probably her husband's mother-in-law, who was very
kind ; of Miss Kemble, who was about returning to
New York and would take letters. London was made
very pleasant to Mrs. Mallet ; her husband's social
position was excellent, old friends numerous, new ones
very attentive. Her extraordinary beauty, which she
retained until far advanced in life, is not only a matter
of tradition, but is eulogized in more than one letter now
faded and yellow with age. A portrait by Copley, taken
about the time of her marriage with Captain Maturin and
now in the possession of one of her nieces, justifies the
admiration expressed by her friends for her loveliness.
Two of her nieces, celebrated for their personal attractions
are said to resemble her.
In 1806 Mrs. Mallet became for the second time a
widow, and although her thoughts turned towards her
native land, and her letters overflow with affection for her
kinspeople she could not separate herself from the new
associations and her late husband's home ; there she con-
tinued to reside until her death, which occurred 6th Jan-
uary, 1830. Except among her immediate family who
were a long lived race, she had survived most of her con-
temporaries, but her interest in their children continued
until the last.
Mrs. Mallet had issue by neither marriage. Her step
children, the son and two daughters of Dr. Mallet by his
marriage with Miss Kennedy, formed her family.
James Livingston, also called James Kierstedt Livings-
ton, born 29th December, 1749, died unmarried 8th Feb-
ruary, 1777, aged 27, and was interred in the burial ground
at Princeton, N. J. Owing to an accident received in
boyhood, he was an invalid and sufferer all his life.
Elizabeth Livingston, born 14th September, 1751, died
28th November, 1752.
Elizabeth Livingston, second of the name, born 6th
October, 1753, died 15th October, 1756.
Colonel William Smith Livingston, born 27th August,
1755, died 25th June, 1794, and was buried in the family
vault of Abraham Lott, N. Y. City. Colonel Livingston
was graduated at the College of New Jersey, 1772. At
the commencement of the revolution he entered the army
and held a command at the battle of Long Island, where
he was taken prisoner. Confined for a short time in the
Sugar House, he was paroled and soon afterwards ex-
changed. He served throughout the war, and as Lieuten-
ant-Colonel of Colonel Webb's regiment, greatly dis-
tinguished himself in Rhode Island under General
Greene. His gallantry and reckless daring gained for
him the soubriquet of " fighting Bill," a name preserved
in a doggerel verse of the period. Colonel Livingston
possessed great physical strength, and shared with
Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge the reputation of being the
handsomest oflicer in the service. He married in 1774
Catherine, daughter of Abraham and Gertrude (Cojeman)
Lott, merchant of New York, but during the war a resi-
dent of Beverwyck, near Morristown, N. J. Mrs. Livings-
ton died 29th September, 1823, and was interred in the
Livingston family vault of the Dutch Reformed Church,
Rhinebeck. They had eleven children, of whom seven
died in infancy. One son, William Mallet, entered the
navy and was lost at sea, unmarried ; another son,
Francis Armstrong, and two daughters, married and have
left issue. To an agent from Europe who wished to
induce them to take steps for the revival of family
honors, now dormant, both the Colonel and his son de-
clined taking any action ; the former making the charac-
teristic reply, " that he preferred being an American
citizen to being a Scotch Lord."
Robert Livingston, born 29th August, 1757, died 8th
September, 1757.
Susanna Livingston, born 30th July, 1758, died at
Trenton, N. J., 13th February, 1851. Married by Dr.
John Witherspoon, at Princeton, 22d August, 1782, the
Rev. James Francis Armstrong. Dr. Armstrong was
born 3d April, 1750 ; died 19th January, 1816. Graduated
at College of New Jersey 1773. Trustee of the college
from 1790 until his death. Studied divinity under Dr.
Witherspoon, and was ordained by the Presbytery of
New Castle January, 1778. Chaplain of the Second Mary-
land Brigade during the revolution. Secretary of the
Society of the Cincinnati, 1790 to 1797. Pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church at Trenton for 30 years. His
useful and honorable life was spent in the service of his
Maker and of his country, ably seconded by a mor'
worthy wife. Their good works, the love and respect they
inspired in both young and old, are cherished traditions
throughout southern New Jersey, and their memories are
held in honorable remembrance as among the worthies of
the revolution. They had issue six children.
Robert James Livingston, born 5th November, 1760 ;
died unmarried 12th April, 1827, at Grasmere, Rhinebeck,
the residence of his brother, Peter R., and was buried in
the family vault at Rhinebeck. He had prepared him-
self for and had probably matriculated at the College of
New Jersey, when the British troops overran the State.
Young Livingston, but sixteen years of age, accidentally
learned that the American army was in motion and was
secretly moving upon the enemy. He left home to join
the vanguard of the Americans, and fell severely
wounded at the victory of Trenton. Tradition states
that he was wounded in the first onslaught and that for a
few moments he was in the power of the Hessians, by
whom he was roughly used. A lady, whose name unfor-
tunately has not been preserved, had the lad removed to
her house, sent for his mother and kept them until he
could be carried in safety to his home at Princeton.
Some years later an accident caused the loss of an eye.
He went abroad and travelled in England and France.
In New York he and his brother the Colonel were
among the gayest of the men of fashion of the period;
if somewhat wild, none the less popular, unless perhaps
among the partisans and friends of Mayor Varick. But
the life wearied him and he retired to his brother's seat at
Grasmere. Fine natural abilities were sacrificed to the
care of a farm, to his horses and gun.
Hon. Peter R. Livingston, born 3d October, 1766 ; died
19th Januarj', 1847, at his residence, Grasmere, and was
buried in the family vault of the Dutch Reformed
2/8
APPENDIX
Church, Rhinebeck. Peter R. graduated at the College
of New Jersey, 1784. For many years he represented
Dutchess County in the Senate of New York, and was
elected Speaker 7th January', 1823, and President sth Jan-
uar)', 182S. He was a member of the Council of Appoint-
ment under the first Constitution of the State and a
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1821. He
married Joanna (born 14th September, 1759 ; died ist
March, 1829, and buried by the side of her husband),
daughter of Judge Robert R. and Margaret (Beekman)
Livingston. They had no issue.
Judge Maturin Livingston, of Staatsburgh, born loth
April, 1769 ; died 7th November, 1847, at the residence of
his son-in-law. Major Joseph Delafield, N. Y. City, and
was buried in the Livingston vault of St. James' Church,
Hyde Park. Judge Livingston graduated with the highest
honors at the College of New Jersey, 17S6 ; studied law
and was admitted attorney ; was one of the members from
New York to the Constitutional Convention of October,
1801; was appointed loth October, 1804, Recorder of the
Citj' of New York ; and 3d February, 1823, Judge of the
Court of Common Pleas for Dutchess County, being the
first appointment for the county under the Constitution
of 1821. He married 30th May, 1798, Margaret (bom at
Clermont 5th February, 1780 ; died at Staatsburgh 28th
September, i860, and buried by the side of her husband),
only child of Major General Morgan Lewis and his wife
Gertrude, daughter of Judge Robert R. and Margaret
(Beekman) Livingston. They had twelve children, all of
■whom survived their father, married, and with one ex-
ception had issue.
Smith, still bom 24th February, 1730.
Mary Smith, born 26th March, 1732 ; mar-
ried 13th April, 1749, John, son of William
Smith, and died 12th October, 1750, leaving an
only child, Mary, bom 17th July, 1750. John
Smith does not appear to have been any relative
of his wife ; his father William is described in
the N. Y. G. and B. Record, 1880, p. 145, as a
mariner and merchant, and is styled Captain ;
he married first Gertrade, daughter of Justus
Bosch, by whom he had the above John and
others, and secondly Sarah, youngest daughter of
Joshua and Blanche Het, and hence a sister of
Mrs. Judge William Smith.
Sarah Smith, bom 3d August, 1733 ; died
1 2th October, 1815 ; married 31st October, 1755,
Abraham Keteltas, minister of the Presbyterian
Church at Jamaica, Long Island, and had issue.
Thompson's History of Long Island, Vol. II.,
pp. Ill, 113, contains an interesting account of
the Rev. Mr. Keteltas, and states that he had
eleven children, of whom only one survived at
the date of that publication.
Thomas Smith, bom nth March, 1734, gradu-
ated at the College of New Jersey, Princeton,
1754. Licensed attorney 4th May, 1736 (Hist.
Mag., 1868, p. 267). He was a member of the
Whig Club, and prominent in his opposition to
the illegal measures of Great Britain (Note 2) ;
was a member of the Committee of Safety of ist
May, 1775, and of the Provincial Congress of the
same year. He stood well as a la^vyer, and en-
joyed a large practice, both at the bar and in the
management of estates. He married in New
York, 22d November, 1758, Elizabeth Leinsen,
or Lynsen, as spelled in the Baptismal Register
of the First Presbyterian Church, and left a
large family (Note 3).
Elizabeth Blanche Smith, bom 13th De-
cember, 1736 ; died nth December, 1817 ; mar-
ried John Torrans, a merchant, from Ireland,
who had settled in South Carolina, and had issue.
Mrs. Torrans' tombstone in the graveyard of the
Circular Church, Charleston, S. C, gives her
name as Elizabeth B. Hatter Torrans (N. Y. G.
and B. Record, Vol. VIII., p. 44).
James Smith, M. D., bom 13th February,
1738 ; died in New York, 1812. Graduated at
the College of New Jersey, 1757. He received
his medical education chiefly in Europe, and
was graduated Doctor of Medicine at Leyden.
His published thesis for the doctorate, dated 22d
August, 1764, was de Febribus Intermittentibus ;
the only copy known to be in America is found
in a private librarj' in the city of ^e\v York, and
bears the impress of Theodore Haak, 1764, Ley-
den. "He is admitted (Dr. James Thatcher's
Am. Medical Biog., Vol. I., p. 95) by all to have
been eminently learned, thoiigh too theoretical
and fanciful both as a practitioner of the healing
art and in his course of public instruction." Dr.
Smith was interested in the organization of the
medical department of King's, now Columbia,
College, and in 1768 was appointed to the Chair of
Chemistry and Materia Medica, but resigned his
professorship in 1770. Although an active and
efficient member of the Whig party, at the com-
mencement of the revolution. Dr. Smith removed
to London, and there continued the practice of
his profession. Among his patients, under date
of 6th October, 1785, we find his brother, the
Chief Justice. A few years after the peace he
returned to New York. The Political Maga-
APPENDIX
279
e, quoted in Smith's "Andre," is authority for
; assertion that in London Dr. Smith was
)minent in his devotion to his country. Jones'
story of New York states, on tlie same author-
, but a search has failed to identify with cer-
aty the passage quoted, " that he was known
all the debating clubs for arguing against
iat Britain in favor of America." Dr. Smith
married (Hist. Mag., second series, Vol. IV., p.
266), about 1765-7, Mrs. Atkinson of Kingston,
Jamaica.
Anne Smith, born 19th July, 1740, married
[ ] Bostwick of New York.
John Smith, born 20th August, 1741. Men-
tioned in Historical Magazine, 1868, p. 266, as
an attorney.
Catharine Smith, born 7th April, 1743 ; died
8th December, 1776, and was buried in the grave-
yard of the Circular Church Charleston, S. C.
(N. Y. G. and B. Record, Vol. VII., p. 44). She
married John Gordon, a Scotchman, who from
London had removed to and settled in South
Carolina. After Mrs. Gordon's death, and dur-
ing or at the close of the revolutionary war, Mr.
Gordon returned to Great Britain with his chil-
dren, and died shortly afterwards in France,
where he had accompanied an invalid relative.
His children resided with and were brought up
by their father's family. Two of his daughters,
Mary and Jane Drummond, married brothers,
James and Edwin Gairdner, and left issue.
Martha Smith, born i8th June, 1744 ; mar-
ried — license dated 30th September, 1763 — Col-
onel Ann Hawkes Hay of the revolutionary
army. His residence was at Fishkill, N. Y
She left a large family.
Samuel Smith, bom 24th June, 1745 ; died,
unmarried, at Charleston, S. C, 12th August,
1771, and was buried in the graveyard of the
Circular Church there, at. it (N. Y. G. and B.
Record, VII., p. 44). His share in his father's
immense real estate, and which it was supposed
would become of great value, he bequeathed by
will to his sisters, Mrs. Livingston and Mrs. Hay.
This property, for many years after the revolu-
tion in the hands of trustees and their successors,
was gradually dissipated, and proved of little or
no value to the heirs.
Margaret Smith, born 19th September, 1747.
She married, probably at a period subsequent to
the execution of her father's will (her husband's
name not appearing in the instrument, which is
dated 24th May, 1769), Alexander Rose, a Scotch
merchant, residing in Charleston, S. C, and had
three sons and three daughters.
Joshua Hett Smith, born 27th May, 1749,
died (Hist. Mag., 1868, p. 267) in New York,
1818. He was twice married ; first, license dated
13th October, 1770, to Elizabeth Gordon of Bel-
vedere, South Carolina, who died in New York,
1st January, 17S4, leaving two children.
Joshua Gordon Smith, born in New York, 7th August,
1771.
Sarah Gordon Smith.
He married secondly in England Anne Mid-
dleton (Hist. Mag., 1868, p. 267), who survived
him, but does not appear to have left issue.
Joshua Hett Smith was bred to the law, and
was licensed attorney 30th April, 1772. He
practiced his profession with success, and prior to
the revolution was regarded as one of the most
promising young men in the city. In politics he
espoused the Republican cause, and was among
the zealous champions of constitutional liberty.
He was not, however, in favor of a rupture with
Great Britain, or of an entire colonial indepen-
dence. As a member of the Fourth Provincial
Congress, he carried out the views of his Orange
county constituents, and opposed the ratification
of the National Declaration of Independence.
Prior to the battle of Long Island, Smith re-
moved with his family to his country seat,
Belmont, near Haverstraw (see Mag. Am. His.,
IV., 21, 1880, for an engraving and admir-
able article entitled " Smith's House at Haver-
straw"), a retired situation, famous for its natural
beauty, and commanding very extensive views of
the Hudson River ; in the neighborhood was his
father's estate ; and here also his brothers and
other members of the family owned immense
tracts of land. Smith's means were sufficient to
enable him to indulge in the pleasures of hos-
pitality. Courteous, personally a favorite, of ex-
cellent social position, married to an accom-
plished lady, his house was constantly full of
guests, and a favorite place of resort for the offi-
cers of the army, French and American — to the
former especially attractive, as their host was
y
7
28o
APPENDIX
conversant with their language. \Mien the un-
scrupulous Arnold sought and obtained the com-
mand of West Point, social intercourse was natu-
rally established bctsveen his family and that of
M r. Smith. Arnold employed every means in his
power to ingratiate himself with Smith. If the
proprietor of Belmont were found to be tractable,
his house and its neighborhood would prove of
great strategic importance in the contemplated
negotiation and the future movements of the con-
spirators. The locality was well known to many
British officers, especially to Major Andre, who
had resided at Haverstraw as a prisoner after his
capture by the American troops before the walls
of Quebec in 1775. Arnold had won and be-
trayed the esteem of those who had befriended
his youth and early manhood. Montgomery,
Gates, Washington, were each in turn the victims
of his hypocritical arts ; was he likely to fail
with a countrj' gentleman, whose sympathies
were with his countr>'men, but who did not
disguise his sympathy with the eflorts of the
peace commissioners, of whom his brother was
one. The details of Arnold's plot, his failure,
the part taken by Joshua Hett Smith are matters
of history ; the vexed question of Smith's inno-
cence or guilty participation remains unsettled.
Had West Point fallen, its garrison been taken,
the momentous consequences to the patriot cause
could hardly be exaggerated ; necessarily, indis-
criminate odium fell upon all who had in any
manner participated in the plot. On Satur-
day, 23d September, 1780, at Pine Bridge,
Smith bade farewell to Major Andre, whom he
knew only as Mr. Anderson, not recognizing in
him the gentleman whom a few years before he
had met at the table of Colonel Hay, and took
the northern road to Fishkill intending to join
his family then visiting at the house of his
brother-in-law Colonel Ann Hawkes Hay ; the
Colonel having married a sister of Mr. Smith.
On the route he stopped to dine with Arnold,
and in the evening at Fishkill supped in com-
pany with General Washington, with whom he
was well acquainted. The next day, Sunday, he
rode to Poughkeepsie and back. The day fol-
lowing, the 25th, was passed pleasantly with his
family. That night he was arrested and carried
before General W'ashington. From this date
until the 22d May, 1781, seven long months, ,
was held a prisoner, often in want of common
necessaries, constantly subject to indignities.
Tried first before a court martial, he wa;
presently transferred to the civil authorities
another tedious trial followed. From the littl
contemporaneous authentic data it w^ould appea:
that both the military and civil courts were em
barrassed with their prisoner and in doubt what/j
to do with him. The more the matter was in.
quired into, the more probable it appeared that
Smith had had no knowledge of Arnold's in-
famous purpose. Smith asserted that he be-
lieved Arnold to be engaged in a legitimate en
terprise from which possibly an honorable peace
might result. The testimony adduced, and his
own conduct, bore witness to the truth of hii
assertions. On the other hand, in view of the
part he had taken, of his intimacy with Arnold, f
how was it possible to believe him innocent ?
Smith tells us that on numerous occasions he
was approached by soldiers and others, with
offers to assist in or bring about his escape, but
that conscious of innocence and distrusting the
motives of those who offered their services, he
forebore to make the attempt. It is not at all
improbable that the puzzled authorities were the
authors of the plan to rid themselves of a trouble-
some .case ; if so, their action was not withoul
precedent during the revolution in the Americi
army. Worn out with suspense, sick at heai
his sentence still delayed, Smith finally resolvei
to escape. A devoted wife arranged the details,
her spirited conduct rendered them successf
throughout the whole sad business she shim
in the bright, unsullied character of an affei
tionate, unwear}^ing wife and comforter. Smil
reached the British lines in safety, and in Ne'
York found protection at the house of his brother,'
the Chief Justice, where he was presently joino
by his family (Note 4). Through Lieutenai
General Robertson, some of his own houses ani
others belonging to the family estate, occupied b|
the British as the property of absentees, were n
stored to him. In one of these he took up his rei
dence and resumed the practice of his professio;
On the 5th of November, 1783, he sailed in thi
transport Ann for Falmouth, his wife, worn out
with the anxieties of the past few years, beii
APPENDIX
281
too ill to accompany him. On the first of the
new year, as her husband sadly records, she died
of a broken heart. The Royal Gazette of the pre-
vious month contains an advertisement for sale
by auction of No. 7 Smith, now William Street,
in possession of Joshua Hett Smith, and of a lot
on the west side of Broadway, extending to the
river. The sale was doubtless ordered to provide
ready funds for the use of the exile. For several
_years Smith was a wanderer, his health broken
and by many regarded as a proscribed man. In
1 801 he had returned to America and is found
travelling in South Carolina and Georgia. His
work entitled " Smith's narrative of the causes
which led to the death of Major Andre," was pub-
lished in London, 180S, and has been severely
criticised by writers on American history. In it
the author does not hesitate to plainly express,
often in an abusive manner, his opinion of those
by whom he deemed himself wronged. Wash-
ington, the members of the court martial, and
especially Lafayette, are accused of having pre-
judged his case and assumed his guilt. Nothing
is more probable, and the charge may also be
brought against the nation ; with the information
first obtained of the circumstances, it was impos-
sible to do otherwise. That the English regarded
Smith as the dupe but not the confederate of
the astute Arnold is sufficiently proved by the
miserable pension allowed him. Arnold was re-
warded with wealth, honors and high military
rank. Smith's pittance was not sufficient to
provide for his family, who for a period at least
were cared for by others. Had Smith been a
partner in Arnold's infamy, his reward would
have been proportionate, and wealth, not poverty,
would have been his lot ; in that case his widow
would not have supported a precarious existence
as a school teacher (His. Mag., 1868, p. 267).
Great Britain is not wont to neglect those who
venture all in her service.
NOTES TO APPENDIX
Note i. Mr. William Kelby, the thorough and con-
scientious student of the history of old New York, who
with rare courtesy is always prepared to aid those who
follow in his footsteps, has furnished the writer with the
following extract from a letter dated 12th April, 1776, in
Almon's American Remembrancer, Vol. III., p. 86: "O,
the houses in New York, if you could but see the inside
of them ! Occupied by the dirtiest people on the conti-
nent (for the empty houses are almost all taken up by the
soldiers). Kennedy's new house, Mallet's, and one next
to it, had 600 men in them. If the owners ever get pos-
session again, I am sure they must be years in cleaning
them, unless they get new floors and new plaster on the
walls."
Note 2. Jones' History of New York places the sons of
Judge Smith among the prominent constitutional leaders
of the day, and to their credit no one of them finds favor
in the sight of the Tory writer. Without reproducing
the characteristic abusive language of that author, he
states in substance, Vol. II., p. 7, that Alexander Mc-
Dougal, Isaac Sears, John Lamb, Peter R. Livingston
and the brothers Thomas, John and Joshua Hett Smith,
were the principal leaders of the Republican clubs. Again,
Vol. I., pp. 19 and 20, that Thomas and Doctor James
Smith, with Judge Robert R. Livingston, his son Robert
R. Jr. (the Chancellor) and others, ■jave efficient aid to
the great triumvirate, William Livingston, William
Smith and John Morin Scott, in the publication of the
American Whig and Watchman. The writer regrets that
he does not find other authority to connect the younger
brothers of the Chief Justice with the distinguished
gentlemen, who principally conducted the above publica-
tion.
Note 3. The following advertisement from
Mr. Thomas Smith describing his seat at Haver-
straw is copied from the New York Packet,
November 15, 1781 :
To be Sold or Lett, Immediately, The Farm on which
the Subscriber now lives, at Haverstraw, in the county of
Orange, within three miles of King's ferry. There is on
the premises a new stone house, with six fireplaces, and
good cellars under the whole ; a compleat large barn, with
proper hovels for cattle, — a frame house for an overseer,
and a good garden, inclosed with a stone fence ; 150 acres
of meadow well ditched, and now in a mowable state,
and as much more may be made with little trouble and
expence ; a sufficient quantity of woodland for fencing
and fuel, and a young bearing orchard : The farm com-
mands a large out drift for cattle, and a landing on Hud-
son's river, within three-quarters of a mile from the
house. The situation in point of prospect, is equal to
any in the State, and the most frequented public road to
and from the eastern and western States, runs along the
front of the farm ; it is an advantageous stand for a
farmer, merchant or innkeeper, and is an elegant situa-
tion for a gentleman's country seat : The farm is in
tolerable repair, and a sufficient quantity of chestnut
rails are already provided to put it into compleat order.
The terms of payment will be made easy to the pur-
chaser, and if rented the farming utensils, hay, grain,
horses, cattle and hogs, with a quantity of household
furniture, may be had with the farm on the most reason-
able terms.
Wanted immediately by the subscriber, a small house,
with twenty or thirty acres of land, either in the western
part of New Jersey, or in the interior part of Connecti-
cut ; it will be either rented during the present war, or
282
APPENDIX
purchased, or taken in exchange, as may best suit the
owner. Thomas Smith.
November 12, 1781.
Note 4. With Jones anything which tended to the dis-
advantage of the Presbyterian Smiths was grist for the
veracious History of New York ; a history whose pre-
tended facts are in great part extracted from contem-
poraneous Tory prints. If the authorities cited failed to
express themselves with sufficient force, it was not be-
neath the Honorable Mr. Jones to supply what he
deemed to be lacking. For instance, compare the follow-
ing as copied from the Political Magazine, Vol. II., p. 62,
1781, with Jones' pretended quotations therefrom (he
citing vol. and page) Vol. I., p. 385, and also p. 20 — the
latter assigned to the same authority and very possibly
derived from the same item:
From the Political Magazine^ Vol. //.,/. 62. " Cir-
cumstancts respecting the betraying 0/ Major Andrei
When Major Andr^ went to consult with General
Arnold, he was carried to the house of a Mr. Smith,
brother to the Smith lately appointed Chief Justice of
New York by Gen. Robertson, and also brother to a Dr.
Smith, who lately lived in Downing Street, Westminster,
and who is said to have gone off the morning that the
soldiers fired on the rioters, and whose negro woman was
hanged for being concerned in the burnings. While Major
Andre was communicating with General Arnold, he lived
at the house of Smith, and wore Smith's clothes, and
when he set out from Washington's camp Smith attended
him till within about twelve miles of Kingsbridge, where
Andre told him he knew his way perfectly well. Just
after Smith left him, he was taken, and, at that very time
he had on Smith's clothes. Washington has tried Smith
for being concerned in what they call Arnold's con-
spiracy ; but the trial has turned out a mere farce ; for
Smith has not suffered any punishment. The people at
New York therefore believe that Smith betrayed Andre
to the rebels, and are of opinion he never can clear up his
character anywhere but at the gallows.
From Jones' History 0/ New York duritig the Revo-
lutionary War— Vol. /., /. 385. " The Political Maga-
zine, second vol., page, 62, speaks of this affair as fol-
lows : When Major Andr^ went to consult with General
Arnold, he was carried to the house of a Mr. Smith,
brother to the Smith who went off the morning the
soldiers fired upon the rioters ; his negro wench was
hanged for being concerned in the burnings. While
Andre was communicating with Arnold, he lived in
Smith's house and wore Smith's clothes ; upon his return.
Smith attended him. Just after Smith left him at Tarry-
town he was taken, and at that very time had on Smith's
old clothes. He was tried for being concerned in Arnold's
conspiracy. The trial turned out a farce. Smith was
never punished. The Loyalists therefore believe that
Smith betrayed Andre and are of opinion he never can
clear up his character but under the gallows."
From yones' History 0/ New York during the Revo-
lutionary IVar, Vol. I., p. 20. "The Political Maga-
zine, in spe.-xking of William Smith, the late Chief Justice
of New York and now of Canada, says : ' The Chief
Justice had a brother, one Dr. Smith, who lived in
Downing Street ; that he was an intimate of Silas Deane
and of John the Painter, who set fire to the Dock Yard
at Portsmouth, for which he was executed ; that he was
known in all the debating clubs for arguing against Great
Britain in favor of America.^"
The Gentleman's Magazine for 1777, pp. 121-124, con-
tains a " Narrative of the trial of James Aitken, other-
wise John the Painter, at Winchester Assizes, for setting
fire to the rope walk in his Majesties Dock Yard at Ports-
mouth, December 7, 1776."' Before his execution on the
loth of March following, John confessed his crime and
gave a statement of his life and wanderings. These are
in part confirmed by other witnesses. The account and
a comparison of the dates sufficiently dispose of Jones' so-
called quotation, Vol. I., p. 20. The animus and value of
the quotation on page 385 is confessed by its departures-
from the original.
The Gentleman's Magazine of July, 1780, page 343^
mentions the trial and execution of Charlotte Gardiner, a
black woman, for active participation in the Lord Gordon
riots. The Political Magazine, Vol. I., pp. 497 and 500,
gives other details of Charlotte, mentions the disposal of
her remains and place of burial, and states that the
"black woman was almost in rags." No one of these
notices allude to Dr. Smith. Had the woman been
a slave of or belonged to a prominent American, resid-
ing in London, the sensational writers would not have
failed to have given prominence to the fact. A year
later the last mentioned periodical asserts that the
woman belonged to Dr. Smith, and that the Doctor is
said to have gone off the morning that the soldiers fired
on the rioters. Jones asserts. Vol. I., pp. 20 and 21. that
Dr. Smith, " a person of strict Republican principles, a
professed enemy to monarchy, a strict independent, a
hater of Episcopacy," etc., etc., " left England and fled
to Brussels, in Flanders." The writer is without docu-
mentary' evidence to prove where Dr. Smith resided
immediately after the Lord Gordon riots, which occurred
in June, 1780, but soon after that time he is mentioned
and described as living in London and occupied with the
practice of his profession.
The baptismal registry of the First Presbyterian
Church of New York opens with the entries of the dates
of the births and baptisms of the children of Judge Wil-
liam and Mary Smith. These, as printed in the New
York Gen. and Biog. Record, Vol. IV., p. 99, present
three variations from the copy of the family record in
possession of the writer. The birth of the eldest
daughter, Susanna, is entered as on the 24th December,
1728, in the family bible 24th December, 1729 ; her elder
brother having been bom i8th June, 1728, the latter is
beyond dispute the correct one. Marj' and Elizabeth
Blanche are entered respectively as born 24th March, 1731,
and i8th December, 1736 ; the family Bible gives the dates
as 26th March and 13th December of the same years.
#
i^'^i^lfm-
"m:
WILLIAM SMITH-THE HISTORIAN
CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW YORK AND OF CANADA
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW YORK AND OF CANADA
William Smith, " the historian," Chief Justice of New York and of
Canada, was born in the city of New York, i8th June, 1728, and died at
Quebec, Canada, 3d December, 1793. Inheriting his father's character
and studious disposition, he made the best use of his time both at school
in New York and at Yale College. The study of Hebrew, in which
language he had already made some progress under the instruction of
his father, was pursued at college, and there too he studied medicine, a
science for which many of his family exhibited a natural taste and talent.
He was graduated in 1745, and immediately entered his father's office,
studying law, together with William Livingston, the future war gov-
einor of New Jersey, and was admitted to the bar 22d October, 1750.
Forming a partnership with Livingston, the young lawyers almost imme-
diately enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. Trusted, respected,
admired for their talents, clients sought them not onl}- from their own,
but from the adjoining provinces. The son of Mr. Smith, writing of his
father's career as a lawyer, says: "If he saw a cause was unjust, he
would state that it was so, and if the litigant parties persisted in their
respective views, he would desire them to seek another counsellor ; if
he found a cause doubtful, he always advised his client to compromise.
When differences were referred to him, which he settled, he would
receive no reward, though offered it by both parties, considering him-
self in these cases as a judge, observing that a judge ought to take no
money."
Smith's religious belief and political faith were those of his family.
His convictions were decided ; his character straightforward and sin-
cere; his temper singularly calm and under control; his eloquence, his
power of application, his learning were undoubted. His address was
kind and winning, one best calculated to make and retain through life
devoted friends. Brought up in the midst of political excitement, the
leaders of the great National party being allied with his father and
generally intimate at his house, such a man, so situated, inevitably
became himself a leader. There is scarce a chapter in the local history
of the period in which his name does not appear. His life, as well as
that of his father, is yet to be written ; material is abundant. There is
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN 419
probably not one of his contemporaries engaged in civil pursuits whose
biography would be more instructive. In a brief memoir it is difficult
to select what to touch upon, what to leave unsaid. His literary
labors,' his interest in the Church, in the boundary disputes, his legal
successes and opinions, cannot in these short notes be even alluded to.
In February, 1767, Governor Moore writes to England, that William
Smith is at the head of his profession of the law, and requests that he
may be appointed to a seat in his Majesty's Council in the room of his
father, the Judge, who with advancing years desired to retire. The
proposal was immediately complied with, Mr. Smith receiving the
appointment the same year. Sincerely attached to the country of his
birth, Mr. Smith was none the less devoted to his sovereign. The
dissensions between Great Britain and the Colonies gave him intense
sorrow, especially as he was fully conscious of the injustice with which
his fellow countrymen were treated. On intimate terms with the
leaders of both factions, it became the business of his life to endeavor to
soothe the violence of party feeling and to reconcile their differences.
Naturally he won the ill will of some few of the extremists among the
citizen tories, who with narrow minds would acknowledge no right
except on their own side, and naturally too, as time advanced and
neutrality was no longer possible, some of the whigs, disappointed in
securing his great talents exclusively for their cause, abused him as a
trimmer, a term applied to many a conscientious statesman, both before
and since. An instance of this kind of abuse appeared in the Pennsyl-
vania Evening Post of 17th September, 1780; it is given in the notes to
this article.' So long as there was any hope Mr. Smith strove to bring
about an adjustment. Even as late as the close of 1775, through his
brother Thomas, a member of the Provincial Assembly, he endeavored
to " open a plan towards reconciliation, under the form of instructions
to the delegates for this Province (New York) at Philadelphia." He had
at an early period prepared and urged a proposition for the union of
all the colonies under one administration, firmly bound to the mother
country, containing guaranteed concessions, w^hich it was hoped would
terminate the chief causes of irritation. The plan was approved by the
British Ministry, but was not brought before Parliament.
Nothing is found to justify the assertion in Sabine's Loyalists that
Mr. Smith was undecided which side to choose. His large estate, his
nearest relatives, his many and devoted friends were in America; his
allegiance he believed to be irrevocably pledged to England. He does
not appear, even in the midst of his family distresses, to have wavered
420 WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
for a moment. All of his sympathies may have been with the individual
rebel, none were with the rebellion that severed the new from the old
England. The important principles for which the Americans took up
arms he knew to be right and just; he had himself advocated and ad-
vanced them ; the mode in which redress was sought was quite another
affair. He could agree with his friend, Joseph Hallett, by whom he was
probably enlisted in an effort to revive in the city the Presbyterian form
of worship during the British occupation, that to maintain their rights
some for the good of all must expose themselves to loss of property, to
imprisonment, to banishment; but he could go no farther, and events
moved rapidlv. He denied the right of rebellion, and questioned the
advantage to the colonists of independence. The infamous pretensions
of the high tories were presently crushed as Parliament conceded the
vital points in dispute, and through their peace commissioners, of whom
Smith was one, exhorted the nation to return to their allegiance. Mean-
while, however, independence had been declared, moderate counsels
prevailed too late to be of service ; but the counsellors were held in
grateful remembrance. Smith had, in season and out of season, well
maintained the cause of British constitutional freedom, but had held
back from the rebellion. A powerful mmority in England, which in time
included the whole nation, justified the revolutionists as the exponents of
the true English policy. In the colonies the principles of the constitu-
tional liberties of England were being successfully defended. A century
has passed. Tories on the American question must now be sought for,
not in England, but in the United States, men who sigh for the halcyon
days of British rule and military law, when the young men served in
the loyal Provincials, when the maids were courted by the gallant red-
coats. Twice since the revolution has the tory party reappeared ; in
the war of i8 12-14 ^^^ in the late rebellion. They had opposed the
formation of the government ; they and their children were too often
not ashamed to seek its disgrace and destruction.
Soon after the arrival of Sir Henry Clinton the bitter feelings aroused
at the commencement of the revolutionary war began to subside, and the
contest was conducted, at the north at least, with few of the atrocities gen-
erally attendant upon civil strife. The British officers and soldiers rarely
exhibited any personal ill will towards the patriots; friendly communi-
cations were constant ; acts of kindness from foe to foe known to all. It
was reserved for the traitor Arnold and his tory native associates, largely
assembled in New York, to indulge in hatred, and the longing for the
wholesale massacre of their countrymen ; to reproach the military that
I
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
421
no terrible slaughter and devastation were committed as an example
and warning-. The tories affected to despise the patriots; their insulting
language, which found no favor among the more intelligent of the
British, justly offended the Americans. It is fortunate, lest the viru-
^lence of the class should be forgotten, that one of their number deemed
his opinions of sufficient value to be preserved in writing, and that the
New York Historical Society has consented to stand as sponsor for the
publication of the volumes, thus giving the work sufficient notoriety.
The manuscript of Judge Thomas Jones, after the lapse of almost
a century, is with much parade presented to the public as a " His-
tory of New York during the Revolutionary War." It deals with
persons and incidents, not as they were, but as the author with per-
verted mind chose to think they were or would have liked them to
have been. Fraud, crimes, perjury, cowardice, murder, meannesses of
every sort are attributed to those whom tradition, history, and the
common consent of the world, have placed among the blameless heroes
and founders of a mighty nation. Their leader, Washington, of course
does not escape being pointed at as a knave. We may smile at the
Tory abuse of American statesmen, soldiers and gentlemen ; their lives
are known, their reputation established ; they need no defence. Ladies,
the wives and mothers of distinguished men, are not forgotten in the
indiscriminate abuse ; they may not easily be protected from posthu-
mous slander, their lives belong to the home circle and fireside ; even
to assert that they were free from guilt is more than objectionable.
We may well imagine that on this one point alone the Honorable Mr.
Jones has attained his object, and has wounded the feelings of the
descendants of those whom he hated. The History was written for
anonymous publication. The author, bred an attorney, and a Judge of
the Supreme Court, pretends an ignorance of the law, and in volume
II., page 105, actually says, "I am no lawyer." The better to conceal
his identity, the misfortunes of Thomas Jones, a zealous loyalist, are
made much of. Jones, a man of wealth, was the most prominent
member of a Long Island family, some of whom were members of the
Church of England, some Quakers. Owing to his extreme party views,
he was, after imprisonment, banished the country, and his estates con-
fiscated. His "veracious" history was written in England, while in
exile. Its publication under his own name would beyond question
have forfeited not only his hopes for a pardon, but his social position ;
this was not to be thought of. Through his agent in New York Mr.
Jones applied, 12th February, 1790, to the Legislature of the State
422 WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
for permission to return to the country. His name was accordingly
inserted in a bill passed 30th March, 1790, permitting the said Jones,
with others, "to return and remain within this State unmolested, any
law to the contrary' notwithstanding.'" The editor of Jones' manu-
script appears to have overlooked the pardon, and states that " had it
been possible he (Jones) would have come back to his loved home
across the sea. and spent his last days beneath the bright skies and in
the pure air of his own Long Island." Jones received his pardon, but
did not come back; he was better employed preparing a posthumous
revenge upon his enemies. Before the revolution Judge Jones had
failed to obtain a re-election by the people of his own Long Island to
the Assembly. During the war he was, as he informs us, persecuted
and cruelly used by his countrymen, slighted bv the English in
America and neglected abroad. Small return was made him for con-
fiscated property, no public office was conferred upon him. Other
Americans, prominent citizens of New York and adherents to the
Crown, were, he thinks, equally guilty as himself, and yet enjoyed their
property undisturbed. The Smiths, Livingstons and many others, with
whom he had enjoyed official intercourse, were honored and possessed
wealth and happiness — he unknown, in ill health, childless, poor and in
exile. It was more than the Judge could bear; hinc illse lachrymas.
This long digression may be pardoned, as Judge Jones devotes
many of his pages to the Smiths, whom, if possible, he hates with a
more malignant hatred than he does the Livingstons. With these two
families his volumes open, and as he warms to his work he concentrates
his abusive epithets on Chief Justice Smith ; not only was Justice
Smith the chief of his name, but his wife was a Livingston. The
climax is reached with the assertion that this " artful, cunning, design-
ing, hypocritical Presbyterian rebel," by whom Sir Henry "Clinton
was absolutel}" governed," caused by his advice the loss of America to
the British Crown.
As the political horizon grew darker, and recourse was had to arms,
Mr. Smith felt that farther intervention on his part was unavailing.
Early in the spring of 1776 (29th March), as was his yearly custom, he
left town for his country seat at Haverstraw, and did not revisit the
city during the summer.* Under date of 24th September, 1776, Gov-
ernor Tryon wrote to Lord Germain that Smith had not been seen or
heard from in five months. The Governor himself had withdrawn, not,
however, with Smith's approval, on board the man-of-war Duchess of
Gordon, leaving the members of the Council to retire where they
i
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN 425
pleased. Malice, aroused by jealousy, pursued Mr. Smith in his retire-
ment. Of the many slanders, the following is selected as a specimen,
because Mr. Smith deemed it of sufficient importance to authorize a
denial or reply :
From the Connecticut Gazette and the Universal Intelligencer, Sept. 13, i-]']6,No. t']0,page 2.
London, yune 10 — The following letter is said to have been sent to Gen. Howe, in America,
from a member of the Council at New York :
New York, May 11, 1776.
Sir. As I have not a doubt of my last letters to Administration convincing them that this city
and province is the only spot in America for carrying on the war with effect agaijist the rebels, and
that in consequence the forces expected this spring, as well as those now under your command, will
be ordered hither, it may be necessary and advisable to send the army thro' the sound, between
Connecticut and Long Island ; of the latter it will be proper to give a description. — It is 130 miles
long, is very fertile, abounding in wheat, and every other kind of corn, innumerable black cattle,
sheep, hogs, &c. ; is very populous, and Suffolk county in particular, as well as the other parts of it,
all good and loyal subjects, of which they have lately given proof, and only wait to be assisted by
the king's troops. The Island has a plain on it, at least 20 miles long, which has a fertile country
about it, is 20 miles from the city of New- York ; Connecticut opposite to it ; New Jersey about 30
miles distant ; Philadelphia no ; Maryland 130; Rhode Island 150: so that in this fertile island
the army can subsist without any succour from Britain or Ireland, and in 5 or 6 days invade and
reduce any of the above colonies at pleasure. Add to these great advantages, that the possession
of the Narrows, and Nutton-Island, would be the destruction of this city, but of this I think there
would be no need, for all the principal inhabitants are at heart with the crown, particularly all my
brethren the members of the assembly, but as the mob now commands, prudence forbids them to
declare without a military force. You have many with you who are acquainted with the navigation
of the sound. The spot which I advise you to land at is Cowbay. W. Smith.
From the Connecticut Gazette and the Universal Intelligencer, October ^, ^nd, N'o. 6-]3, page 3.
Dobb's-Ferry, Sept. ig, 1776.
Mr. Green. As I understand you have republished a letter in your paper, which was reprinted
from a London paper, and said to be written by the Hon. William Smith, Esq., I beg leave to
inform you that it is a forgery ; and I doubt not was written by some of the Refugees in England,
with a view to render Mr. Smith's situation as disagreeable as their own was. The letter will not
prejudice Mr. Smith in the opinion of those who knew him, but the natural and just jealousy of the
times may lead those who are unacquainted with him to form an unjust idea of him. I doubt not,
therefore, that, in justice to injured innocence, you will publish the following extract from a letter
written by Mr. Smith, respecting the letter above mentioned, and insert a paragraph requesting the
printers, who have already published, or may yet publish the forgery, to print this too — It is dated
the fourth inst. I am. Sir, your humble servant, Eben Hazard.
Extract of a letter from the Hon. William Smith, Esq.
" The artlessness of the author of the letter in the Baltimore Journal of the 28th of August is
very apparent. Indeed, as the forgery was contrived in England, he could not know of my removal
from New York on the 29th of March — You will observe that the printed letter is dated there the
nth of May, and that the writer supposes himself a Member of the Assembly. I have not been
in town since March, and never was in the Assembly. These mistakes in personating me render
424 WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
the fraud manifest. There are other marks of it — No man who knows me will imagine that, after
my asserting in the history of New- York (page 205) that Long Island was one hundred and twenty
miles long, and Hempstead plain but sixteen, will suppose me the informer that the island is one
hundred and thirty miles in length, and the plain twenty-four ; and that I am so ignorant of America
as to place New-Jersey at fifty miles from Long-Island, and Rhode Island at one hundred and fifty,
and Mar}-land but thirty from Philadelphia ; or that I should believe the people of Suffolk, and
especially the Members elected but last spring, to be well affected to the measures now under
the direction of Gen. Howe.
I am not fond of oaths to remove groundless suspicions, or I should enclose you an affidavit
that I never wrote a letter to Mr. Howe upon any subject whatsoever, nor to any man living in the
smallest degree similar to the letter in the Maryland Journal. Such an affidavit I will publish, if it
is necessary, for the satisfaction of my countrymen ; after which, as Mr. Howe is upon the spot,
no man can believe the calumny, who does not think me both a fool and a knave."
Information having been lodged against Mr. Smith, his name was
entered among the first upon the list of suspected persons, prepared
15th June, 1776, by the committee, to detect conspiracies. The mem-
bers of the committee present were Philip Livingston, Joseph Hallett,
John Jay, Thomas Tredwell, Governeur Morris, Lewis Graham and
Leonard Gansevoort. Most, if not all, of these gentlemen, were personal
friends of Mr. Smith; with Livingston, Hallett and Morris, he was inti-
mate. On the 27th June, the committee, of whom there were then
present Leonard Gansevoort, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Randell, Mr. Morris,
Colonel Graham, Mr. Tredwell, "Ordered that a summons be issued to
the Hon. William Smith, as a person of equivocal character, returnable
on Saturday, 6th July next, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon of the same
day." What then followed is not known, the journals of the committee
to detect conspiracies not being found among the public archives.
Smith, however, addressed the committee in writing under date of
4th July, with an expression of his political opinions, and doubtless
appeared in person, as directed to do, on the 6th. Smith's letter, or
a copy of it, is believed to be in existence, but where, or by whom pos-
sessed, has not been ascertained. Whatever may have been the decision
of the committee, Mr. Smith was allowed ample leisure to remove with
his family and furniture from his seat at Haverstraw to the Livingston
Manor, where, doubtless in accordance with the orders received, he took
up his residence. Here (Mag. Am. His., July, 1880, p. 21), he is found
writing to Schuyler in December, 1777, for books: " Anything, French
or English, provided it be neither law or mathematics, nor anything in
favor of a Republican form of government."
On the 7th March, 1777, the Provincial Congress ordered that all dis-
affected persons, etc., should either take an oath of allegiance or retire
within the British lines. Smith, not having taken the oath, was sum-
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN 425
moned before the convention. The generous treatment he received as
having been misrepresented or misunderstood is best told in the lan-
guage of the minutes of the Convention.
June 7th, 1777. " Present, Colonel Van Coitlandt, Mr. Hobart, Mr. Harper, Major Tappen,
Mr. Cuyler, Colonel de Witt, Mr. Cantine, Mr. Gilbert Livingston, Major Van Zandt, Mr. Jay,
Mr. Yates, Mr. R. R. Livingston, General Scott.
The council being informed that William Smith and Paterson, Esquires, are attending in
town, pursuant to the order of the 3d instant. Ordered, that the Secretary wait on Mr. Smith and
requc it his attendance in Council . Mr. Smith attending, was by order asked the following questions
from the chair, to wit. Whether he considers himself a subject of the independent State of New
York. He desires that what follows may be accepted as his answer.
That he does not consider himself discharged from his oaths of fidelity to the Crown of Great
Britain. He refers to his letter of the 4th July last, in answer to a summons of a committee of the
Honorable Congress for an elucidation of his political sentiments. He has strictly conformed to
his parol in that letter, nor will infringe it. He then conceived a separation from Great Britain
could not be contended for with safety, to the rights, liberties, and privileges of this country ; and
from a deep concern for the colonies, he prays God that peace may be restored by a happy, safe,
and generous reconciliation."
The Assembl}- adjourned to meet in the afternoon, and there-
upon
''Resolved, that the said William Smith and John Patterson be confined within the manor of
Livingston on their parole of honor, to abide there until the further order of this council, or the
future executive power of this State ; and in the mean time neither directly nor indirectly, by words
or deeds, to oppose or contravene the measures of the United States of America, or either of them,
for supporting their independence in opposition to the King and Parliament of Great Britain, or
for supporting the present Constitution or government of this State.
0}-dered, that the President take their paroles, which were accordingly taken, by them respect-
ively subscribed, as follows, to wit :
" State of New York, ss.:
I, William Smith, Esquire, do hereby pledge my parole of honor, to abide within the manor of
Livingston until the further order of the Council of Safety, or the future executive power of this
State; and in the meantime that I will neither directly nor indirectly, by word or deed, oppose or
contravene, the measures of the United States of America, or either of them, for supporting their
independence in opposition to the King and Parliament of Great Britain, or for supporting the present
Constitution or Government of the said State. Wm. Smith."
It was not enough to exempt the prisoners from the operation of the
general law, which decreed that the disaffected should retire to New
York; on the 9th the order was so far extended "as to permit Smith
and Patterson to go into and pass through the east camp and to attend
divine service at Red Hook in the Rhinebeck precinct." (Jour. Prov.
Con., Vol. 1, p. 961).
Smith in no wise attempted to conceal that he did not favor the
rebellion ; it is probable, however, that some may have thought, inas-
much as he admitted that the x^mericans had many just causes of griev-
420 WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
ance, he might he brought to admit the right of rebellion, and be
induced to join the patriots. This was not the opinion of the pro-
prietors of the manor in which he was confined, or of any who knew
him intimately; in their estimation an important point was gained in
holding Smith aloof from the British, and thus depriving them of the
value of his counsel and popularity.
As the year drew towards its close, many causes, domestic and finan-
cial, rendered it important for Mr. Smith to return to New York : doubt-
less also the life of inaction wearied him, and the time appeared to have
approached when his services as mediator might prove acceptable to
both parties. An admirable letter to the Provincial Congress, request-
ing that he might be relieved from confinement, is entered in full on the
journal of that bodv, and is as follows:
Manor of Livingston, 9th November, 1777.
Gentlemen : — I have hitherto borne up against the misfortune of being a prisoner in my
native country, from a consciousness that I have ever sought her welfare, and a persuasion that the
measure owed its origin not to any suspicion of my enmity to her interests, but to views of general
expediency. Being an enemy to no man I have a pleasure in believing no man to be mine. But
whatsoever was the motive of it, my imprisonment is painful. It traverses my private interest, and
does violence to my humanity, and tenderest offices of affection. I wrote, therefore, lately to Gov-
ernor Clinton, to prevent my being longer separated from my estate at Haverstraw, where I have
relations who are great sufferers, and my presence is wanting for their succor, and the recovery, if
possible, of my plundered effects. But I have a further wish, and that is to repair to the capital,
not only to answer a call upon me for aid from my daughter in England, but to gratify my own
desire, to contribute towards abating the acrimony of the present war, and exciting to overtures of
peace. I flatter myself, that though you may perhaps suspect the event will be a lesson to my
vanity, you will nevertheless perceive the impossibility that any efforts of that kind will be injurious
to the public. Except furniture, my ser\-ants and such conveniences as I shall want for my family
in town, I leave everything else in the power of my country. All I have upon earth is here, as a
pledge of my attachment to her interest. If she is happy, I am satisfied. I must share her for-
tunes. If she is ruined, so am I. I am, gentlemen, your most obed. servant, Wm. Smith.
The Congress assigned no reasons, but simply resolved that William
Smith's request be not granted.
In the meanwhile a committee of the Provincial Congress of New
York had been appointed to draft a constitution for the new State.
Jones' History of New York (Vol. I, p. 143) states that the author was
"assured from authentic authority, brought from the rebel country,"
and what is more to the purpose, the editor of the work positively
asserts (Vol. I, Note XLVII, p. 643) that " William Smith was consulted
out of doors and did much of the drafting of the instrument." No
authorities are cited and confirmation of the story has been sought for
in vain. Still many of the members of the committee were personal
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN 427
friends of Mr. Smith ; some of them were, at the time, in constant social
intercourse with him, and it is far from improbable but that, over-
whelmed with public business, they desired and sought the aid and
counsel of the great lawyer. If he were asked, we may entertain no
doubt but that his assistance was cheerfully rendered. The anecdote,
honorable alike to both parties, is an instance, as pleasant as it is rare, of
personal regard and consideration remaining unbroken in the midst of
civil war.
The Boston Mirror, a periodical published in 1808-9, contains a
notice of a very similar character, but of greater interest. Without
acknowledgment, the article is in part reproduced, verbatim, in Sabine's
Loyalists, and has since, more or less contracted, appeared in various
publications. In full it is as follows :
" The following is related to us by Doctor Mitchell himself, and we
vouch for its authenticity.
" Anecdote of Wm. Smith, Esq., the historian of New York, and late Chief fustice of Lower
Canada, recommended to American historians.
This eloquent man, having been an adherent to the royal cause during the revolution, left the
City of New^ York in 1783, with the British troops, and was afterwards rewarded by his sovereign
with a high judiciary office in Quebec. Judge Smith, although thus removed from the place of his
origin, always contemplated the politics of his native country with peculiar solicitude. One even-
ing, in the year 1789, when Dr. Mitchell was in Quebec, and passing the evening at the Chief
Justice's house, the leading subject of conversation was a new federal constitution, then under the
consideration of the States, on the recommendation of the convention which sat in Philadelphia in
1787. Mr. Smith, who had been somewhat indisposed for several days, retired to his chamber with
Mr. Grant, one of the members of the legislative council, at an early hour. In a short time Mr.
Grant came forth and invited Dr. Mitchell, in Mr. Smith's name, to walk from the parlor into Mr.
Smith's study and sit with him. Mr. Mitchell was conducted to a sofa and seated beside the Chief
Justice, before whom stood a table supporting a large bundle of papers. Mr. Smith resumed the
subject of American politics; untied his papers. After searching among them awhile, he unfolded
a certain one, which, he said, was written about the time the colonial commotions grew violent, in
1775, and contained a plan or system of government, sketched out by himself then, and which
nearly resembled the constitution afterwards proposed by the Federal Convention of the United
States. He then read the contents. The piece was long and elaborate, and written with much
beauty and spirit ; ' this, sir,' added he, after finishing it, ' is the copy of a letter which I sent to a
member of Congress in 1775, who was an intimate friend of General Washington. You may trace
to this source the sentiments in favor of a more energetic government for your country, contained in
the commander-in-chief's circular letter, and from this there can be no doubt that the citizens of all
the States derived their leading hints for your new form of government. Thus, you see, the great
and original outlines of your national constitution were dravm by a man whom the laws of his native
land proscribed and forced away from its shores.' "
The Chief Justice drawing near the close of his life still exhibited an
engrrossing interest in the land of his birth ; what interested her, inter-
ested him. Great Britain had goaded the Americans to rebellion, and
428 WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
repented when war only could determine the issue. Smith was among
the tew who saw right on both'sides ; that of his countrj^men to resist
tyranny, that of the British to maintain her lawful authority. However
much he might regret the result of the war, it occasioned him no bitter-
ness. The prosperity of the new nation rejoiced him ; her people, who
had indeed proved their British origin, were also his people in blood and
affection.
It was not until the summer of 1778 that Mr. Smith was relieved
from his parole, and ordered to remove to the City of New York. He
was sent with his family, under a flag of truce, conducted by Colonel
Burr, and brought with him, or received soon afterwards, much of his
household furniture. According to Jones' History of New York (Vol.
I, pp. 146-7), every consideration was paid to his comfort; his furniture,
library, servants, chariot, horses, etc., came with him, and the bearer of
the flag had orders to stop on his way down the Hudson, at Mr.
Smith's country seat and bring away what he might wish to remove.
We may hope that the statement is true, and that Mr. Smith had the sad
satisfaction of again visiting his river home, although it was dismantled
and plundered. Many friends greeted Mr. Smith's return to New York,
while, beyond the British lines, many of the patriots felt assured that
they had now in the city a fellow-countryman, high in the estimation of
the public enemy, who could and would tell the truth concerning them.
On the 30th of June, 1778, the committee to detect conspiracies,
appointed by the Provincial Congress, issued a sentence of banishment
against Mr. Smith. That such a decree had been passed, and that its
object felt hurt and aggrieved, at what he esteemed to be unwarranted
severity, was well known, but with the disappearance of the minutes of
the committee the record was lost. It has been reserved to Mr. B.
Fernow, of the office of the Secretary of State at Albany, in his
researches, to discover the original document. It is found in a bound
volume of manuscripts relating to the Massachusetts boundary ques-
tion. Unfortunately it is not dated, nor has the handwriting been posi-
tively identified. The document is endorsed " List of Banished Per-
sons," and is here reproduced."
Soon after Mr. Smith's return to the city he was appointed one of
the commissioners for restoring peace to the colonies, and in the fol-
lowing year was honored with the commission of Chief Justice of the
Province of New York, in the place of Chief Justice Horsmanden,
deceased.
The appointment was communicated to Mr. Smith on the 24th of
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN 429
April, 1780. On the fourth day of May following he was sworn into office
hi the City of Nezv York, before his Excellency Governor Robertson. In the
appointment and in his installation to office no legal or usual form was
omitted, and it is therefore difficult to understand the expression of the
late learned Dr. O'Callaghan that it was " an appointment which has
never been recognized " (Doc. Col. His. Pro. N. Y., Vol. VII, p. 910),
or that of the historian Dr. Lossing, that " Smith was never really our
chief justice" (Mag. Am. His., July, 1880, p. 33). Mr. Smith was chief
justice, as had been his predecessors, under and by appointment of the
British, and was by them recognized as such. Before his appointment,
however, the Americans had declared themselves an independent nation,
and were at the moment in arms to assert their sovereignty. Whether
or not the civil appointments made by the British were to apply to the
revolutionists depended upon the chances of war.
The elevation of Mr. Smith to the Chief Justiceship was made with-
out regard to the claims for promotion of the existing justices, Messrs.
Ludlow, Jones and Hicks. The rage of Judge Jones (the "veracious"
historian already alluded to) knew no bounds. He may have been
aware that the office of chief justice had been tendered to William
Smith, Senior, but now the appointment was conferred upon William
Smith, Jr. Having mentioned in his own peculiar forcible language
the return of Mr. Smith to New York, and his appointment as
Chief Justice, Judge Jones thus disburdens himself ; Smith's character
" remains much the same as it did in 1753, except only that after an
experience of thirty years he has greatly improved in all that art, cunning,
chicanery, dissimulation, hypocrisy, and adulation, which he possessed
in so eminent a degree while a youth ; and which ever was, and ever
will be, the true characteristic of a person professing the religion of a
New England dissenter and the politics of an English Republican"
(Jones' His. of N. Y., Vol. I, pp. 167, 168). This extract is given as an
instance of the extremes to which high church and Tory passion led, in
this case stimulated by an all-devouring jealousy.
In New York Chief Justice Smith's influence was very great, both
with the civil and the military authorities. Sir Henry Clinton and Sir
Guy Carleton, the British Commanders-in-Chief, extended to him their
fullest confidence ; beyond the British lines many of his political foes
remained his steadfast friends. When in captivity, his letters from New
York were delivered to him unopened, by the order of the Provincial Con-
gress,' and his property was not included among the confiscated estates.
At this time it is difficult to prove, but tradition asserts, and docu-
430 WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
mentary evidence may possibh' yet be found to support the belief, that
Mr. Smith's acts of kindness to unfortunate prisoners of war were many
and incessant. With his strong sympathies and fearless character he
could not do otherwise : his high position and reputation enabled him
to act without fear of compromising himself in an office where others
of more timid nature and less established loyalty shrunk from exposing
themselves.
On the 5th of December, 1783, Chief Justice Smith, with his son
William, sailed for England on board of the frigate which conveyed the
British commander-in-chief, and landed at Plymouth on the tenth of
January following. In England his reception was most gratifying.
Mrs. Smith, with her younger children, continued to reside in New
York ; letters intended for her are found addressed, in the early part of
1784, to the care of her non in law, Dr. Mallet, Broadway, and at a jv/-/
later period to that of her son, Thomas Smith, counselor of law. Wall
street. o.--..-^- w«^-. .^^ =i7r.
On the first of September, 1785, Mr. Smith was appointed Chief
Justice of Canada, but remained in England until the following summer.
We find him in London on the 27th of August taking leave of his
friends, and on the 29th on board of the Thistle frigate, of twenty-eight
guns, to sail that day from Portsmouth Harbor for Canada. On the
same vessel was the general with whom three years before Chief Justice
Smith had left the shores of America ; Sir Guy Carleton, now Lord Dor-
chester and Governor-General of all the British provinces in America.
Time had increased and cemented the friendship between these old
friends. The party arrived at Quebec on the 23d of October, 1786,
and there Mr. Smith was joined by his wife and children. Henceforth
the chief justice continued to exercise the duties of his high office with
honor to himself and to the court over which he presided, until stricken
on the bench with a fever which in a few days ended his life. He was
buried on the 4th of December, 1793, the day following his death, in the
Episcopal Church, at Quebec.
Before his death, the act of attainder, which is mentioned as having
been passed on the 30th of June, 1778, was cancelled, and the chief jus-
tice was again at liberty to revisit the land of his birth. The petition to
the Legislature, praying for the reversion of his sentence of banishment,
is signed by Andrew Bostwick and Colonel William Smith Livingston ;
it was passed by the Senate March 30th, 1790, and signed by George
Clinton on the 3d of April following. The act includes the names of,
and conveys a pardon to, James Jauncey, Abraham C. Cuyler, William
M
WILLIAM SMITH— THE HISTORIAN 43 I
Smith, William Axtell, Richard Floyd, Henry Lloyd the elder, and,
curiously enough, to Thomas Jones, who was then, as already stated,
engaged upon his History. Copies of the petitions in favor of Chief
Justice Smith and of Judge Jones, with a copy of the bill, are annexed
in full, none of the documents having heretofore appeared in print/
Those who study Mr. Smith's useful and honorable life, who have a
knowledge of his family and social circle, will not be disposed to criti-
cise the declaration of an onl}^ son, that the Chief Justice was "distin-
guished as a model of Christian perfection." Another authority declares
that the great statesmen and soldiers of the revolution, while regretting
that Mr. Smith had not made their cause his cause, found no fault with
him, unless a righteous indignation against wrong was to be accounted a
sin. His strong feelings and thorough convictions may on some occa-
sions have led him, however deliberately, to express himself too earn-
estly in regard to the conduct of those Tories who lived on the bounty
of unworthy Governors. If in his History of New York he may in some
few instances have judged harshly of those who did act, or who were
credited with acting, as tools or dupes of the court, he recorded what
he and the nation believed to be the truth. Nothing was written in
malice or to serve personal or party ends. If the Church of England is
not exhibited in the beauty of her purity, she has but herself and a mis-
taken policy to find fault with, not the historian who records her acts
and the attendant consequences.
Chief Justice Smith married, on the 3d of November, 1752, Jennet, a
sister of his brother-in-law, and second daughter of James Livingston, of
New York. She was born' November ist, 1730, in New York,
and died on the ninetieth anniversary of her birthday, November ist,
1819, at the house of her son-in-law, Chief Justice Jonathan Sewell, Que-
bec, Canada. Chief Justice and Jennet Smith had issue ten children,
an account of whom follows in the appendix.
MATURIN L. DELAFIELD
432
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
NOTES
' Smith's History of the Province of New
York was written by the Chief Justice, not by
his father, Judge Smith, as is stated in Jones'
History of New York, Vol. I, note xii., page
436, and not in part written by the Chief Justice
and continued by his son, the Hon. William
Smith, as asserted in Sabine's Loyalists, Vol. II,
p 312. The first volume was published by the
author in London, 1757 ; the second volume by
the New York Historical Society, 1826, and the
two volumes, then first associated together in
one edition, by the same society in 1829. To
this copy is added a short but valuable memoir
of the author, written by his only surviving son
at the request of John \V. Francis, John Dela-
field and David Hosack, publication committee
of the New York Historical Society. Of the
first (London) edition two large paper copies
have of late years been discovered by Mr. Jo-
seph Sabin, and sold by him at respectively
$3C» and $200.
There are several other editions of the first
volume. One of these, published in Albany
in 1814, contains a short, but well prepared con-
tinuation, sometimes attributed to the Hon.
William Smith, but claimed by Hammond (Pol.
Hist, of New York, Vol. I, preface p. vi.) to
have been written by Dunlap. The Hon. Ben-
jamin F. Butler, in an anniversary discourse de-
livered before the Albany Institute, 23d April,
1830, says that the continuation is "generally
understood to have been written by Mr. J. V.
N. Yates." However short the continuation
and apparently hastily prepared, both the style
and the knowledge of his subject exhibited by
the author deserve that his name should be
known and enrolled upon the list of American
historical authors. There is also a French trans-
lation of the first volume of Smith's histor)'.
' From the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Phil-
adelphia. Sept. 17, 1780 — By accounts from Fort
Clinton, on Hudson River, we learn that the
magistracy of the State of New York send their
disaffected inhabitants into that place, from
whence they are transmitted in vessels under flag
of truce to New York City. These persons are
discriminated by their refusal to maKe attesta-
tion of their allegiance to the State, and to re-
nounce the tyrant of Britain. It appears that
the highest characters are not winked at : the
Honorable William Smith, Esq., formerly of the
Royal Council under the British government,
and author of the History of New York, &c.,
forced out of his inglorious neutrality, has been
lately brought to the test ; and refusing the oath,
was about four or five weeks since delivered to
the enemy through this channel. His Majesty of
Britain will be difficulted to provide for his
faithful adherents, and may think in earnest of
selling Hanover and his other German domin-
ions, to raise a fund equal to their expectations.
Where then will such as Mr. .Smith, who are
justly despised both by Royalists and Americans,
find shelter and relief?
''■An act to allow the persons therein named to
return and remain within the State. — WTiere-
as, it has been represented to the Legislature
that James Jauncey, Abraham C. Cuyler, William
Smith, Thomas Jones, Richard Floyd and Henry
Lloyd, the elder, are desirous of having permis-
sion to return to this State, therefore, be it en-
acted by the people of the State of New York
represented in senate and assembly, and it is
hereby enacted by the authority of the same,
that the said T. J., A. C. C, W. S., T. J., R. F.
and H. L., the elder, severally be and they are
hereby permitted to return to and remain within
this State unmolested, any law to the contrary
notwithstanding.
State of New York, in Senate, March 30, 1790.
This bill having been read a third time, resolved
that the bill do pass. By order of the Senate.
Isaac Roosevelt, Prest., p. h. vice.
State of New York, in Assembly, March 26,
1790. This bill having been read a third time, re-
solved that bill do pass. By order of the As-
embly. Gulian Verplanck, Speaker.
In Council of Revision, 3d April, 1790. — Re-
solved, that it does not appear improper to the
Council that this bill entitled " An act, etc."
should become a law of this State.
Geo. Clinton.
To the Honorable the Legislature, etc.: The
petition of David Floyd, of Queens County,
farmer (son of Richard Floyd, Esq., formerly of
the County of Suffolk), and George Stanton, of
the city of New York, agent for Thomas Jones,
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
433
Esquire, formerly of the said city of New York,
humbly sheweth that the said R. F. and Ths.
J., are respectively named in the act of attainder
passed in the year 1779. That the petitioners
have lately received letters from the said R. F. and
Ths. J , intimating their wishes that they might
be permitted to return to this State. The peti-
tioners, therefore, in behalf of the said Richard
Floyd and Thomas Jones do most humbly pray,
that the operations of the said act may be sus-
pended so far as the same respect the said Rd.
Floyd and Thomas Jones, and that they may be
permitted to return to this State.
And as in duty bound, etc., David Richard
Floyd Jones, George Stanton.
New York, Feb. 12, 1790.*
*Mr. Smith left the city for his country seat at
Haverstraw much earlier in the season than cus-
tomary. His departure was most probably sud-
denly determined upon in consequence of Gover-
nor Tryon having sought security on board of a
frigate lying in the harbor; many articles of value
were left in his house which were not required
for the immediate use of the family in the coun-
try. After Mr. Smith's return to the city, in
1778, the following advertisement was inserted
theiV. V. Gazette oi 7th December, 1778:
" When the subscriber retired to Haverstraw in
March, 1776, he left in his house in the Broadway,
at the comer of Verletenbergh, various articles of
furniture, with two trunks of parchments and
many bundles of papers in about 40 small deal
bound boxes, numbered in the front. He is in-
formed that they were moved out of town in
iVugust, 1776, but can't discover who at present
has the custody of them. There were also taken
away Dr. Mitchell's large map of North America,
Mr. Ratse's map of the city, and a manuscript
map of the colony of New York; among the
papers there are some of great consequence to
the estates of many persons in town and coun-
try. Satisfactory information, especially con-
cerning the parchments and papers, will be grate-
fully received and rewarded.
William Smith."
Jones' History of New York asserts that
"upon this occasion," viz.: the arrival of Gen-
eral Washington in the city of New York, 13
April, 1776. "William Smith, Esq., accommo-
dated General Washington with his house in
town, his brother Tom did the same with his to
General Gates, and retired to Haverstraw, about
30 miles from New York, upon the banks of the
Hudson, where each had a farm and country
seat."
In this connection it is needless to say more
than that Mr. Smith had left New York on the
29th March, two weeks before the arrival of
General Washington. The residence and head-
quarters of the Commander-in-chief were estab-
lished at the Mortier house, Richmond Hill; the
town headquarters, which are frequently referred
to in general orders, etc. , were at the comer of Ex-
change Place and Broadway, and were, it is be-
lieved, at the house of Mr. Smith, which seems
to have been taken possesssion of as a deserted
mansion.
* List of Persons Banished by the Commission-
ers for detecting and defeating Conspiracies, &c.,
within this State, in pursuance of an Act, etc.,
entitled : " An Act more effectually to prevent
the mischiefs arising from the Influence and Ex-
ample of persons of Equivocal and suspected
Characters within this State : " —
William Smith, Esq., one of the members of the
late Council of the King of Great Britain
for this State.
Cadwallader Colden, Esq., of Ulster County.
Roeliff I. Ettinge, do do
James Smith, Esq., of Dutchess County.
Cornelius Luyster, Esq., do do
Dirck van Vliet, do do
Samuel Fowler, of Ulster County.
Andrew Graham do do
I. Michael Thorn, do do
Solomon Ettinge, do do
James Peters, of Orange County,
John Terrill, of Dutchess County.
William Lupton, of Ulster County.
Samuel Frame, of Ulster County, confined for
exchange, afterward permitted to return to
his place of abode.
James Scott, of Dutchess County.
Theophilus Nelson, do do
Richbell Williams, of Dutchess County, is since
returned and pardoned.
Lodwick Strydt, of Dutchess County.
Samuel Mabbit, do do
434
WILLIAM SMITH— THE HISTORIAN
Walter Dubois, of Ulster County.
Agrippa Martin, of Dutchess County.
Myndert \'ielie do do
Israel Wood, of Orange County.
Benjamin Booth, do do - ,
John Booth, do do
Zebulon Wallbridge, of Dutchess County.
Richard Harrison, Esq., late of the City of New
York.
Joseph Teed, of Dutchess County.
William Brady, do do
Joseph Mabbit, do do
Benjamin Lapham, do do
Richard Bartlett, of Ulster County.
Joost Garrison, do do
Samuel Washburn, do do
Samuel Dickinson, ^o do
Samuel Peters, do do
Lewis McDonald, of Westchester County.
Stephen Baxter, do do
John Green, do do
James Banks, do do
Abraham Underhill, do do
Benjamin Close, do do
Benjamin Thip, do do
Richard Currie, do do
Gabriel Purdy, do do
Endorsed :
List of Banished Persons.
* {Front the Neiv York Journaly yune 29, 1778. Printed
at Poughkeepsie^ by John Holt.)
An Easy Plan to Reduce the Rebellious
Colonies.
By Captain Jolly, arrived at Liverpool, the
following letter was received, dated New York,
Jan. ID, 1778 :
My Lord:
My duty to the King and the melancholy state
of his affairs on this Continent command me to
deal plainly and truly with your lordship. The
overthrow and capture of Gen. Burgoyne and all
his army has inspired the base rebels of this coun-
try to such a degree of insolence that they are de-
termined to attack Gen. Howe in Philadelphia.
In short, my lord, if France enter into treaty
•with the rebels, I am afraid America will be for-
ever lost to Great Britain ; to prevent which per-
mit me, my lord, to say that I think the only
means are to cede to France forever :
I. — All Canada, in the state she possessed it
before the late war.
2. — To give up Cape Breton and St. John, with
all their dependencies.
3. — To cede to them Nova Scotia.
4. — A right to fish on the Banks of Newfound-
land as possessed by them before the late treaty
of Fontainebleau.
In consideration of those cessions, France on
her part,
I. — To cease all connection, correspondence
and commerce with the rebel colonies.
2. — To call home all her subjects that are now
in the actual service of the rebels, and prevent
them in future.
3. — To assist Great Britain with a corps of
12,000 auxilliary troops, to be employed in North
America in the service of Great Britain with the
British army, in order to reduce the rebels to
obedience.
The honor I have of being one of His Majesty's
Council, as well as duty and gratitude, have all
called for me to g;ive you the best advice for His
Majesty's service in my power in this dreadful
situation of the King's affairs here, which are
such as require some cessions to be made.
I have the honor to be, my lord,
Your lordship's most obedient.
Humble servant,
William Smith.
The writer acknowledges the kindness of Mr.
William Kelby, of the New York Historical So-
ciety, in calling his attention to this and to other
newspaper paragraphs connected with his sub-
ject :
{From the New York Journal^ July 20, 1778.)
Poughkeepsie, July 20, 1778.
Mr. Loudon :*
Seeing in your last paper a letter from Mr.
William Smith, desiring your aid in discovering
where a letter under his signature, inserted in one
of my late papers was copied, I immediately con-
cluded to enable you to gratify his curiosity to
the utmost and accordingly wrote a full account,
which I intended to publish in my paper of to-
day, but the paper was so filled up that there
was not room to insert the piece, which I am,
therefore, obliged to defer till next week, when
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
435
you may assure Mr. Smith he shall be fully
satisfied. I am, etc., j^^^ jj^^t.
* Samuel Loudon was the printer of the A>w Vori-
Packet, at Fishkill.
(From the New York Journal, July 27, 1778.)
PouGHKEEPSiE, July 17, 1778.
Mr. Loudon:
In your paper of yesterday, I observed the
following letter, viz. :
Livingston's Manor, July 2, 1778.
Mr. Loudon :
I shall be much obliged to you for your aid in
discovering whether the malicious forgeries in
Holt's paper of the 29th of June, purporting
to be a letter from me to some noblemen on
the other side of the water, and dated at " New
York, the loth of January, 1778," is wholly or
in part taken from any other and what paper.
To all who know me, and that I have not
been out of this neighborhood since the 7th of
June, 1777, I need not make the declaration
(which I can with truth) that I have not written
a line to any person in Great Britain ; nor even
in New York, for thirteen months past, except
by flags, and open for inspection ; and therefore,
an exculpatory oath would scarce be justifiable
to defeat a calumny so artfully contrived, as
to carry with it a detection of its own falsehoods.
In condescension, however, to the weak, and
for the satisfaction of others at a remote dis-
tance, who might be uninformed of my situation,
I beg you to publish this letter in your next
paper. This is the second attempt within two
years, to palm a frantic, nonsensical letter upon
the public, as mine, and probably as both were
dated at a place where I then was not, they are
the work of the same hand. The assassin, if not
a worse character, must at least be one of those
fanatics, common in turbulent times, who, confi-
dent that they are right in their aims, give them-
selves no concern about the means, regardless of
the divine injunction prohibiting evil and im-
moral acts, though conducive to the most lauda-
ble and excellent ends.
I am your most obedient servant,
William Smith.
This letter I publish at large, not only be-
cause I intend to make some remarks upon it,
but also for the sake of justice to Mr. Smith,
that his vindication may appear in the same paper
where the piece that gave occasion to it was in-
serted, and which he calls a malicious forgery.
In the first paragraph of his letter, Mr. Smith
seems to be extremely solicitous to find out
" whether it was wholly or in part, taken from
any other and what paper." It would have been
a more direct way for Mr. Smith to obtain a sat-
isfactory answer to his inquiry, if instead of
his writing to you, who had no concern in the sub-
ject of it, he had directed his letter to me, who
live at a much less distance from him, and could
have given him more certain and satisfactory in-
formation. But since he has chosen this round-
about way to do it, by writing to you to in-
quire of me (unless it had happened, that you
should have been able to inform him of your
own knowledge, without such inquiry, in which
case the publication in your paper would have
been unnecessary), I shall follow his method,
and instead of answering him myself, enable you
to answer him. However, as I imagine his man-
ner of proceeding in this affair has excited the
curiosity of many other of your readers, as well
as myself, and may have given occasion for some
conjectures to my disadvantage, especially as he
has in his letter mentioned and treated me in a
manner somewhat disrespectful, I think it nec-
essary to declare my conjectures as to the rea-
sons of his conduct.
If he had written immediately to me, it would
not have given room to publish an insinuation,
that I had refused to give him the satisfaction he
solicits you to procure him ; nor that my refusal
might arise from my privity to the forgery and
malicious design of the writer. And as I can
think of no other reason, I am of opinion that
Mr. Smith has taken this indirect way of inquiry,
merely to introduce these insinuations, give them
the appearance of realities, and avail himself of
the opinions they might suggest in his favor.
I think as far as Mr. Smith's letter concerns
me, I have given the true and natural meaning
of it, as it will be understood by readers in gen-
eral; and that, by every onewhogives full credit
to it, in the sense in which he intended it should
be understood, I shall appear exactly in such a
light as I have represented ; and if so that he has
436
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
not done me justice must appear by my publish-
ing his vindication, that he may receive all the
benefit it can afford him; and by the account I
shall now give you, for his use, of the piece pub-
lished in my paper of 2gth June, which he
complains of as a malicious forgery. The ac-
count is as follows, viz. :
On the lOth of June I set out from Poughkeepsie
on a journey to Boston ; on my way, at New
Haven, about the 22d of June, I first saw the piece
in question, published in an Eastern paper. I also
saw it at several other places on my journey, and
at Boston in the papers printed there, particu-
larly in a paper of the i8th of June, published by
Mr. John Gill. From this paper it was my peo-
ple took the copy published in my paper of the
29th. And this Boston paper sets forth, that on
board a prize brig of 14 guns, bound from Scot-
land to New York, but taken and carried into
Boston by Capt. Croly, were found Scotch news-
papers to the nth of April, from one of which,
under the London head, March 20th, the said
piece signed William Smith was taken. But I
have written to Mr. Gill desiring him to inform
me exactly where it was taken and the date of
the paper, which, as soon as I know, I shall en-
deavor through you to communicate to Mr.
Smith.
I gave no orders for inserting the piece in my
paper, nor knew anything of its being there till
I saw it. However, I was far from being dis-
pleased that my people, though without my order,
had inserted it, since it gave Mr. Smith an op-
portunity to vindicate himself if innocent, and
his country to know him, if guilty.
Mr. Smith knows whether he has reason to be-
lieve that any person on the other side the Atlan-
tic (where, it is hardly to be doubted, that both
this and the former letter with his name sub-
scribed, were originally published) is so rancor-
ously disposed towards him ; and of so villainous
a character as, without any apparent advantage
to himself maliciously to forge these letters in his
name merely to ruin his character and deprive
him of the confidence and esteem of his country.
The public will judge of the probability of this
according to the e\'idence Mr. Smith shall pro-
duce. Meanwhile, it is thought surprising that
though he anxiously labors to make it appear that
he is not the author of the letters published in his
name, he has never once clearly and positively
denied that he is. At least, readers in general
think so. I shall at present confine myself to the
last, wherein he says — ''he need not declare —
though he can with truth — that he has not written
a line to any person in Great Britain, or even in
New York, for thirteen months past, except by
flags, and open to inspection." But he has not
denied that he has written to a person somewhere
else who might have conveyed hii letter to the
person it was intended for. Nor is it certain that
some of these flags were not vehicles of a traitorous
correspondence with the enemy ; or, that though
his letters might be left open to inspection, he
might not be assured they would not be inspected,
or would be inspected only by such as would ap-
prove and deliver them. He affects to think
''An exculpatory oath unnecessary, for that the
calumny is so contrived as to defeat itself and
carry with it a detection of its own falsehood. "
But in this last he may be assured he deceives
himself ; for, even if the letter in his name is a
forgery, it is not thought so by most that see it,
more especially by those that have seen his excul-
patory letter. Nor is it probable an oath to the
same purpose would have a better effect.
Less efforts than these would be sufficient to
defeat a calumny against a man who had acted
with uniformity as a friend to the rights and lib-
erty of America ; but no arguments or oaths will
probably be effectual to restore to the love and
confidence of his country a man who would do
nothing to assist it in time of danger, nor give it
any satisfactory assurances that he would not
join its enemies the moment he could do it with
safety to his person and property. The subject
naturally led me to these reflections which in no
respect arose from enmity to Mr. Smith, whom
I always respected and esteemed, except so far
as I have thought his public conduct blameab'e ;
nor in what I now write of him have I more de-
clared my own sentiments than the public opinion.
I am yours, etc.,
John Holi.
Notwithstanding Mr. Holt's intimation that
the subject was to be continued in the columns of
the New York youmal, a search has failed to
reveal any other reference to the matter. It is
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
437
not impossible but that Mr. Smith replied to Mr.
Holt's extraordinary article by a letter to Loudon's
New York Packet, printed at Fishkill, and that
this reply was of so convincing and thorough a
character that Mr. Holt concluded not to reprint
or to notice it. Unfortunately — and little to the
credit of the public libraries of New York — no
complete set of the Neiv York Packet exists
among them, and the copy owned by the Ameri-
can Antiquarian Society at Worcester is found to
contain but about one-half of the issues of the
paper for the last half of 1778 ; in these nothing
appears relative to the Smith-Holt matter. Per-
haps some one of the owners of the separate
numbers of the New York Packet scattered
throughout the country may possess and be in-
duced by these notes to reprint the sequel to the
correspondence, which is certainly not complete
with what is here given.
' The order of the Provincial Congress is especi-
ally complimentary to Mr. Smith. It directs that
the letters received for him ' 'which were sent open,
but enclosed together, be enclosed, sealed up and
certified by the President to have been sealed up
in the Congress without having been perused,"
and be so delivered to him. {Journals Provincial
Congress, Vol. /, /. 748.)
^ To the Honorable , the Representatives of the State
of New York, in Senate and Assembly con-
vened :
The petition of Andrew Bostwick and William
S. Livingston, of the City of New York, gentle-
men.
Humbly sheweth : — That your petitioners and
their connections are interested in a very consid-
erable real estate, of which William Smith, Esq.,
deceased, died seized ; that the said estate cannot
be settled and your petitioners receive their just
due, owing in a great degree to the absence of
William Smith, Esq., one of the executors, who,
by a law of this State, passed the 30th day of
June, 1778, is prohibited from returning to or be-
coming a resident of this State. That independ-
ent of the personal interests of your petitioners,
they do assure this Honorable House that there
is in the care and possession of said William
Smith property and papers which he holds in
trust, or in common with others, of great value
to many citizens of this State, which can only be
accounted for by the said William Smith in per-
son. That, notwithstanding your petitioners are
fully confident that it is not the interest of the
said William Smith to again become a citizen of
this State, yet they have the fullest assurance that
he will, on permission for that purpose being first
obtained, return to this State for the settlement
of the affairs of those citizens over which he has
either had charge or been interested in.
Your petitioners, therefore, pray that his name
be mserted in the Act granting permission for
certain proscribed persons again to return to the
State as in duty bound.
They will ever pray, etc. ,
And'w Bostwick.
William S. Livingston.
Endorsed : A petition of Andrew Bostwick
and Wm. S. Livingston, that William Smith,
Esq., may be permitted to return into this State,
In Assembly, Feb. 18, 1790, read and committed
to a Committee of the whole House on the bill
to permit persons therein named to return into
this State.
No. 144.
Assembly Journal, p. 42. Thursday, 10 o'clock
A. M., Feb. 18, 1790. — A petition of And'w Bost-
wick and William S. Livingston praying permis-
sion, etc. (like the endorsement).
Assembly fournal, p. 94. Thursday, g o'clock
A. M., March 25, 179O. ***** ^j^.
Hitchcock, from the Committee of the whole
House on the bill entitled : ' ' An act to allow
the persons therein named, etc.," reported that
after the Committee had inserted the names of
sundry persons therein the enacting clause was
again read for the approbation of the Committee,
as follows, viz. :
" Be it enacted by the people of the State of
New York, etc. : That James Jauncey, Abr. C.
Cuyler, William Smith, William Axtell, Thoma&
Jones, Richard Floyd and Henry Lloyd, the
elder, severally be and they are hereby permitted
to return to and remain within this State un-
molested, any law to the contrary notwithstand-
ing. "
Agreed to by a vote of 32 yeas against 18 noes
and Ordered, that the bill be engrossed.
Senate Journal, p. 45. Friday, 5 o'clock p. M.,
March 26, 1790. — A message from the Honor-
43'
WILLIAM SMITH— THE HISTORIAN
able, the Assembly, by Mr. Van Cortlandt and
Mr. Marvin was received, with the following two
bills for concurrence, viz., the bill entitled " An
act to allow the persons therein named, etc.,
etc.," which were read a first time and ordered a
second reading.
Ibidem. Saturday morning, March 27, 1790.
— The bill entitled " An act to allow the persons,
etc.," was read a second time and committed to
a Committee of the Whole.
Ibidem, page 49. Tuesday, March 30, rygo. —
Mr. Williams, from the Committee of the Whole,
to whom was referred a bill entitled " An act to
allow the persons, etc.," reported that the Com-
mittee had gone through the bill, made amend-
ments thereto and agreed to the same. The re-
port was read and the amendments agreed.
Thereupon, " Resolved, that the bill as amended
do pass."
* Anno, 1730, the first of November, being
Sunday, at two o'clock in the morning, is our
daughter. Jennet, bom, and on the following
Sunday held in baptism by Mistress Cornelia
Schuyler, and received in holy baptism by Domine
Walter DuBois. Cousin John Schuyler, junior,
godfather. Mother Magarieta Livingston, god-
mother. May the Lord bless her and raise her
in joy to salvation. (Family bible of James Liv-
ingston, translated from the Dutch).
•• The baptismal registry of the First Presby-
terian Church of New York, gives the date of
birth of eight and the date of baptism of nine out
of the ten children of Chief Justice and Jennet
Smith. These compared with a copy of the
family bible of the Chief Justice agree, except
in one trifling difference, as noted in the text.
DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM SMITH
I. Jennet Smith, bom Sunday, 25th November,
1753 ; died in England, 8th August, 1828. Mar-
ried in New York, 21st October, 1771, Lieutenant,
aftervvards General John Plenderleath, of Glen,
County of Peebles, Scotland, a gentleman of
large estate.* She survived her husband, who
left four sons and two daughters. Three of the
sons were distinguished in the British army ; the
fourth, a surgeon, served and lost his life in the
Peninsula campaign, under the Duke of Welling-
ton, and is honored with a monument to his
memory in Westminster Abbey. Her elder chil-
dren were bom in New York.
* The following notice afterward appeared in the New
York Gazette, of November 4, 1771 : " The 21st of Octo.,
ber, at night, was married Lieutenant John Plenderleith,
of the Royal Artillery, to Miss Jennet Smith, daughter of
the Hon. William Smith, Esq. A young lady endowed
with all the accomplishments requisite to render the mar-
riage state happy."
II. Mary Smith, bom 27th May, 1755 ; bap-
tized 15th June following, by the Rev. Aaron
Burr, President of the College of New Jersey ;
died 13th June, 1759.
III. Elizabeth Smith, bom 26th January,
1757 ; liied unmarried, at her father's country
seat, Haverstraw, on the North River, I2th Sep-
tember, 1776, in the twentieth year of her age.
The distress occasioned by the divisions among
her family and friends engaged in opposite sides
in civil strife, is said to have caused her death.
IV. Mary Smith, bom 28th December, 1759 ;
married Lieutenant-General William Doyle, of
Waterford, Ireland, and left two sons and one
daughter.
V. Margaret Susanna Smith, bom 25th
October, 1761 (baptismal registry gives the date
of birth as 2ist October, 1761) ; died 22d August
1765.
VI. William Livingston Smith, bom 26th
September, 1763 ; died 28th August, 1764.
VII. Margaret Smith, bom 26th September,
1765 ; died 31st August, 1766.
VIII. Hon. William Smith, the only son
who survived infancy, bora 7th February, 1769,
of whom presently.*
IX. Livingston Smith, bom 8th of June,
1770; died i6th September, 1770.
X. Henrietta or Harriet Smith, bom in
the city of New York, 6th February, 1776;
died at Quebec, Canada, 26th May, 1849 ; mar-
ried 24th of September. 1796, Jonathan Sewell,
Chief Justice of Lower Canada. Chief Justice
Sewell was bom 6th June, 1766, and died at
Quebec, 12th November, 1839; was a member
and for many years was President of the Execu-
tive Council and also Speaker of the Legislative
Council and LL. D., Harvard. Chief Justice and
Harriet Sewell had sixteen children.
WILLIAM SMITH — THE HISTORIAN
439
I. Henrietta, born i8th July, 1797 ; died ist Au-
gust, 1797.
William, born 28th May, 1798; died ist June
1866 ; sheriff of Quebec.
Edmond, born 3d September, 1800, in Holy Or-
ders.
Robert, born 30th December, 1803; died 1834 ;
barrister.
Maria, born 26th January, 1804; died at Quebec
2d April, 1881 ; married Major Temple, 15th
Regiment, and left issue.
Henry, bom 21st October, 1806 ; in Holy Orders.
Henrietta, born 14th October, 1808; died 17th
November, 1847.
James, bom 31st August, 1810. Physician.
Montague, bom 24th August, 1812 ; died 28th
February, 1859.
Francis, born 5th January, 1816.
Algernon, bom 31st August, 1817; died loth
1875 ; Colonel 15th Regiment.
Eliza, born 21st July, 1819; died 1875 ; married
John Ross of Quebec and left issue.
Charlotte, born 8th July, 1814; died 31st De-
cember, 1826.
XIV. A girl, stillborn.
XV. & XVI. Twins, a boy and girl; who died in infancy.
* The Hon. William Smith, the only son of
Chief Justice and Suoanna Smith, who survived
infancy, was bom in the city of New York, 7th
February, 1769, and died at Quebec, Canada, on
the 17th of December, 1847. At the close of
the Revolution he sailed with his father for Eng-
land and was sent to continue his studies com-
menced in New York, to a Grammar school at
Kensington. When his father was appointed
Chief Justice of Canada, young Smith accom-
panied him to that province, arriving at Quebec,
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
23d October, 1786. He was appointed Clerk of
the Provincial Parliament and presently made
a Master in Chancery. In 1814, he was advanced
by Earl Bathurst to a seat in the Executive
Council. William Smith, also, served as Lieu-
tenant Colonel of the Third Battalion of the
Quebec militia. He was the author of Smith's
History of the Province of Canada, from its first
discovery to the year 1791, two volumes, Que-
bec, 181 5. The work, which is now rare and
much sought after by book collectors, is in-
correctly attributed by the Doc. Col. His-
tory of the State of New York, Vol. VIII,
p. 62, to Chief Justice Smith, the father of the
author.
William Smith married Susan, who died at
Quebec, 26th January, 1850, daughter of Admi-
ral Charles Webber, of the county of Hamp-
shire, England, by whom he left five children.
I. William Boudenell Smith, late Colonel of the
iSth Regiment; resides in England. Colonel Smith
married Caroline, daughter of Lieut. Colonel
Grierson and sister of Major General Grierson.
and has an only child, married to Lieut. Colonel
Warren, of the 78th Highlanders, of the Warrens
of Warren Court, Baronets, and has issue.
II. Charles Webber Smith, of London; married
Anna Chelworth and died in 1879 without issue.
III. Emily Ann Smith, married the Rev. George, son of
General Mackie, late Governor St. Lucia, and left
issue.
IV. Louisa Janet Smith, married her cousin Robert
Sewell, son of the Chief Justice, and left issue.
V. Caroline Susanna Smith, married Henry, son of
Andrew Stewart, of Quebec, and left issue.
J
i
ERRATA
April Number:
The engraved etching of Judge Smith \s irom ^. life size portrait oi
the judge, painted by Wollaston, and not from a miniature.
Page 271, line i. Strike out the word England and read Connecticut.
Page 282, line 8, second column. Strike out the single quotation
mark.
June Number:
Page 430, line 14. Strike out the words son-in-law. Dr. Mallet mar-
ried Mary Livingston, a niece of Mrs. Smith ; see page 276.
Page 430, line 15. Strike out the word sojt and read brother-in-law ;
see page 278.
Page 439, line 28. Strike out the word Susannah, and read Jennet.
ADDENDA
Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, to whom allusion is made on p. 271, the widow
of Colonel Elisha Williams, of Connecticut, and second wife to Hon.
Judge William Srnith, whom she survived, died 13th June, 1776, at the
house of Sheriff Williams, Westerfield, Conn. See genealogical notes,
etc., of the first families of Connecticut and Massachusetts, by Nathaniel
Goodwin, and the Williams Genealogy, 1847.
MATURIN L. DELAFIELD
FiELDSTON, June, 1 88 1
(p^
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